The Unreality of Time is a philosophical work by the idealist J. M. E. McTaggart. This work is a phenomenological study of the appearance of time and it's effects in scientific thinking.

The Unreality of Time is a philosophical work by the idealist J. M. E. McTaggart. This work is a phenomenological study of the appearance of time and it's effects in scientific thinking.

McTaggart’s argument for the unreality of time, first published in 1908, set the agenda for 20th-century philosophy of time. Yet there is very little agreement on what it actually says—nobody agrees with the conclusion, but still everybody finds something important in it. This book presents the first critical overview of the last century of debate on what is popularly called "McTaggart’s Paradox". Scholars have long assumed that McTaggart’s argument stands alone and does not rely on any contentious ontological principles. The author demonstrates that these assumptions are incorrect—McTaggart himself explicitly claimed his argument to be dependent on the ontological principles that form the basis of his idealist metaphysics. The result is that scholars have proceeded to understand the argument on the basis of their own metaphysical assumptions, duly arriving at very different interpretations. This book offers an alternative reading of McTaggart’s argument, and at the same time explains why other commentators arrive at their mutually incompatible interpretations. It will be of interest to students and scholars with an interest in the philosophy of time and other areas of contemporary metaphysics.

"Terror, disaster, memory, selfhood, happiness . . . leave it to a poet to tackle the unthinkable so wisely and so wittily."* A literary guide to life in the pre-apocalypse, The Unreality of Memory collects profound and prophetic essays on the Internet age’s media-saturated disaster coverage and our addiction to viewing and discussing the world’s ills. We stare at our phones. We keep multiple tabs open. Our chats and conversations are full of the phrase “Did you see?” The feeling that we’re living in the worst of times seems to be intensifying, alongside a desire to know precisely how bad things have gotten—and each new catastrophe distracts us from the last. The Unreality of Memory collects provocative, searching essays on disaster culture, climate anxiety, and our mounting collective sense of doom. In this new collection, acclaimed poet and essayist Elisa Gabbert explores our obsessions with disasters past and future, from the sinking of the Titanic to Chernobyl, from witch hunts to the plague. These deeply researched, prophetic meditations question how the world will end—if indeed it will—and why we can’t stop fantasizing about it. Can we avoid repeating history? Can we understand our moment from inside the moment? With The Unreality of Memory, Gabbert offers a hauntingly perceptive analysis of our new ways of being and a means of reconciling ourselves to this unreal new world. "A work of sheer brilliance, beauty and bravery.” *—Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less

"In this immensely thought-provoking book, Thulasidas explores our notions of space and time and shows how our sense of reality rests on uncertain supports. Space is unreal the same way sound and smell are unreal, and time is no more real than mathematics. In a space created by the brain out of the light falling on our retinas (for the Hubble telescope), is it a surprise that nothing can travel faster than light? Generated by our sensory perception and fabricated by our cognitive process, the space-time continuum is the arena of physics. Looking at reality as a cognitive model of perception, Thulasidas sheds new light on spiritual philosophies, both Western and Eastern. Exploring the overlaps among the sciences and philosophies with impressive surety and clarity, The Unreal Universe looks set to revolutionize the way we think of reality and understand both modern physics and ancient spiritual writings"--Back cover

A poetic autobiography. An introspective look at love, tragedy and existentialism from the pages of Jimmie Flora's journals.Flora's cunning ability to capture his personal experiences allow us to adventure across the spectrum of human emotions. As if each poem had a soul of its own, eager to share its story.