Past versus future.

[vaelynphi]

Past and history show an odd bias for people. Most seem to accept that the past is in some definite sense fixed, finished, set--done. What it was it forever will be. Or, to put it dumbly, the past is done. The future, however, hasn't 'happened' yet, and so is not set--still to be determined

Comments

[marcimojo]

Good stuff. Write more of these. I'd like to read one on the debate over causality between philosophers.

"So why do we project our hopes into the future, which is uncertain, troublesome, and almost frightening in its obscurity, and yet regard the past as a cage of obligations, regrets, or perhaps bygone glories? Should not the past seem more like an old friend, the close counselor who holds our wisdom--the lessons of our experience--and the roots of our personality."

Now you're sounding like Elizabeth Bowen. She has an essay called "The Bend Back" which contains the same sentiment.

[vaelynphi]

Judging from what I've heard of her, and that I haven't read anything by her that I recall, I really need to look up some of her stuff!

[marcimojo]

She's a bit under-rated. If you were to give her a try, I would suggest reading The Last September.

[tyresias]

I kinda want to copy and paste this unto my Facebook, giving due credit of course. But you may not care for that.

Thanks for giving me good points to ponder now that I have survived Accreditation Canada.

[zimzat]

It's a public entry. I doubt he would mind if you simply linked it.

*shrug*

[vaelynphi]

Feel free; just for good form, I always recommend giving the attribution as a link, in case typos are fixed or something else, or more importantly someone wants to come back here and argue, which is always fun, but frankly I've no problem with you reproducing it as you please.

I'm more flattered someone liked it enough to think it worth repeating. :)

[easwaran]

Nice thoughts.

So why do we project our hopes into the future, which is uncertain, troublesome, and almost frightening in its obscurity, and yet regard the past as a cage of obligations, regrets, or perhaps bygone glories? Should not the past seem more like an old friend, the close counselor who holds our wisdom--the lessons of our experience--and the roots of our personality. The past knows us best. And what is so free in the future? The threat of tomorrow holds repetition, duty, the unknown. The future is a test, not a promise.

I just wanted to point out one more aspect of our emotional relation to the past and future - we can dread future pain, but with past pain we just say "thank god that's over". It's hard to make sense of that.

[vaelynphi]

And yet I wonder if that anticipation is part of what drives the sense of difference between what was and what will be. I wonder if the memory of pain is reported at a different level than current pain, or expected pain.

There's an interesting psych experiment lurking somewhere in these waters.