Time, relativity, and the spatiality of mental events

Mauro Dorato

pp. 197-207

in: Maria L. Dalla Chiara, Roberto Giuntini, Federico Laudisa (eds), Language, quantum, music, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

Sellars once wrote that " "the problem of time" is rivaled only by the "mind-body problem" in the extent to which it inexorably brings into play all the major concerns of philosophy" (1971, 527). Considering that time plays a major role both in our inner life and in the description of the outer world, one could suggest that two problems are deeply related: our progress in understanding bits of the problem of time might shed light into the mind-body problem and viceversa.¹ In this paper, I will test the plausibility of this suggestion, by focusing on a fundamental aspect of the relationship between the "time of physics' and the "time of mind", namely the problem of their compatibility.²