Reality of Time

Errol E. Harris is John Evans Professor Emeritus at Northwestern University.

• Preface I. Introduction: The Nature and Vindication Prevalent Repudiation of MetaphysicsWhat is Metaphysics?The Restoration of Metaphysics II. Metaphysical Problems of Time Passage, Movement, and MeasurementHow Do We Identify the Present?Change, Permanence, and the Transcendence of PassageSpinoza Provides a Clue III. Physical Time Attempts to Eliminate Passage from Physical TimeProcess, Order, and ChaosThe Paradoxes of ZenoCosmic TimeTime ReversalCosmic History and Cosmic Unity IV. Biological Time Organism and DureeThe Emergence of LifeEvolutionEnvironment and Biological ClocksBehaviorBiocoenosesConclusion V. Psychological Time The Stream of ConsciousnessThe Specious PresentTime and the Transcendental SubjectThe Problem of the Transcendental EgoSoultion to the Problem VI. Historical Time Res GestaeThe Idea of the Historical PastThe Historical ProcessStructuralism and Deconstructionism VII. Dialectic in History Historical ThinkingTransformation of Conceptual SchemesThe Dialectical ScaleHistorical ObjectivityThe Historical Universal VIII. Evolution and Omega Evolution, Diachronic, and SynchronicThe Features of WholenessDifferentiation and ProcessThe Clue to "Omega"Omega and TimeOmega and Deity"Mysticism" Notes Select Bibliography Index

"This is a substantial and well-written essay on a key topic in metaphysics, by a distinguished and seasoned metaphysician who is also a master of the scientific literature of recent decades. The writing is vigorous, concise, and clear, and the examples are aptly chosen and lucidly formulated. It is a book of unique distinction." — George L. Kline, Milton C. Nahm Professor of Philosophy, Bryn Mawr College"It is a beautiful piece of deep philosophical thinking, expressed with outstanding clarity and elegance. I like especially the rare combination of rich immersion in the facts of science with profound creative reflection and synthesis. This is truly a distinguished, even great work." — W. Norris Clarke, S. J., Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Fordham University"The Reality of Time is cogently thought out and clearly written. Once I started, I could not put it down. I regard this book as an eminently perceptive presentation of the import of time for all intellectual concerns. Demonstrating time's pervasive implications for basic questions of science, thought, and history, this book is also an exceptionally readable introduction to perennial questions of metaphysics as well. For a text obviously addressed not to specialists but to a generally literate audience, (the author) has done a masterful job." — Charles M. Sherover, Hunter College