Temporal Asymmetries in Philosophy and Psychology - Hardcover

by Christoph Hoerl (Editor), Teresa McCormack (Editor), Alison Fernandes (Editor)

Humans' attitudes towards an event often vary depending on whether the event has already happened or has yet to take place. The dread felt at the thought of a forthcoming exam turns into relief once it is over. Recent research in psychology also shows that people value past events less than future ones, such as offering less pay for work already carried out than for the same work to be carried out in the future. This volume brings together philosophers and psychologists with a shared interest in such psychological past/future asymmetries. It asks questions such as: What different kinds of psychological past/future asymmetries are there, and how are they related? Under what conditions do humans exhibit them? To what extent do they reflect features of time itself, or particular beliefs people have about time? Are they rational, or at least rationally permissible, or should we aspire to being temporally neutral? What exactly does temporal neutrality consist of?

Author Biography

Christoph Hoerl, University of Warwick, Teresa McCormack, Queen's University Belfast, Alison Fernandes, Trinity College Dublin

Christoph Hoerl is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He studied Philosophy at the Munich School of Philosophy and University of Sussex before completing a DPhil at the University of Oxford. Together with Teresa McCormack, he led the AHRC project "Time: Between Metaphysics and Psychology" (2017-2019).

Teresa McCormack is Professor and Head of School in the School of Psychology at Queen's University Belfast. She completed her undergraduate degree and PhD in Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge. Her work primarily focuses on the developmental psychology of time, and she has published extensively in this area. Together with Christoph Hoerl, she led the AHRC project "Time: Between Metaphysics and Psychology" (2017-2019).

Alison Fernandes is Assistant Professor in Philosophy at Trinity College Dublin. She attained a PhD in philosophy from Columbia University, having previously completed degrees in philosophy, physics, and chemistry at the University of Sydney. She has held postdoctoral positions at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Warwick, including on the AHRC project "Time: Between Metaphysics and Psychology".