Editing Future (section)

==In philosophy==
{{Time sidebar}}

In the [[philosophy of time]], presentism is the [[belief]] that only the present [[existence|exists]], and the future and [[past]] are [[reality|unreal]]. Past and future "entities" are construed as [[logic]]al constructions or [[fictionalism|fictions]]. The opposite of presentism is '[[Eternalism (philosophy of time)|eternalism]]', which is the belief that things in the past and things yet to come exist [[eternity|eternally]]. Another view (not held by many philosophers) is sometimes called the '[[Growing block universe|growing block]]' [[theory]] of time—which postulates that the past and present exist, but the future does not.<ref>{{cite book| last=Broad| first= C.D.| title= Scientific Thought| location=New York| publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Co.| year=1923| url=http://www.ditext.com/broad/st/st-con.html}}</ref>

Presentism is [[wikt: compatible|compatible]] with [[Galilean relativity]], in which time is independent of space, but is probably incompatible with [[Hendrik Lorentz|Lorentz]]ian/[[Albert Einstein]]ian relativity in conjunction with certain other philosophical [[thesis|theses]] that many find uncontroversial. [[Augustine of Hippo|Saint Augustine]] proposed that the present is a knife edge between the past and the future and could not contain any extended period of time.

Contrary to Saint Augustine, some philosophers propose that conscious experience is extended in time. For instance, [[William James]] said that time is "...the short duration of which we are immediately and incessantly sensible."{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}} Augustine proposed that God is outside of time and present for all times, in [[eternity]]. Other early philosophers who were presentists include the [[Buddhism|Buddhists]] (in the tradition of [[Indian Buddhism]]). A leading scholar from the modern era on [[Buddhist philosophy]] is [[Theodor Ippolitovich Stcherbatsky|Stcherbatsky]], who has written extensively on Buddhist presentism: {{cquote|Everything past is unreal, everything future is unreal, everything imagined, absent, mental... is unreal... Ultimately real is only the present moment of physical [[wikt:efficiency|efficiency]] [i.e., [[Causality|causation]]].<ref>Vol.1 of ''Buddhist Logic'', 1962, Dover: New York. 70–71.</ref>}}