ABSTRACT
There has long been a fruitful relationship between the metaphysics of time and the physical sciences, with physics being particularly prominent in this regard. What does the second law of thermodynamics have to tell us about temporal asymmetry and the arrow of time? Do Einstein’s relativity theories render dynamic conceptions of time which require an objective and universe-wide simultaneity relationship untenable? Do some approaches to a quantum theory of gravity threaten the very existence of time, as some have claimed? These are all familiar issues, at least to those interested in the implications of physics for temporal metaphysics, and all have been much debated. Interesting and important though they are, I am not going to be concerned with them here. I want instead to focus on the relationship between the metaphysics of time and the experiential aspects of time—the manner in which the temporal is manifest in the most basic forms of our consciousness. This has, of course, always been a major topic for those working in the phenomenological tradition, but analytic philosophers have (until recently) paid it comparatively little attention. This is to be regretted: the topic of “time consciousness” is an interesting one in its own right, and—as I hope to show in what follows—there is the potential for a fruitful relationship between the phenomenology and the metaphysics of time.
