Egocentric presentism

High school (ages 12+)
Philosophy & Big Questions

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/egocentric-presentism

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the introduced by?Caspar Hare
2. Does egocentric presentism say other people don’t exist?No. It says other people can be conscious, but their experiences aren’t as ‘present’ to us as our own right‑now feelings.
3. Why would someone hope to be the unharmed person in the train crash example?Because the feeling of being unharmed feels more real and immediate to them than the pain of the other person, even though they know the facts.

Solipsism: The philosophical idea that only one's own mind is certain to exist, with all external reality potentially being uncertain or illusory.
Epistemic: Relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation; concerning the theory of knowledge.
Ontological: Relating to the nature of being or existence; concerning the study of what exists.
A-theory of Time: The philosophical view that time genuinely flows and that the present moment is ontologically distinct from the past and future.