Beyond Representation: Bridging the Chasm between the Different Grammatical Tenses

Abstract

Representing the activity of experiencing in the empirical world is a formidable task because it requires a representation that remains passively immobile on its own. The activity of experiencing is about the concrete particulars addressed only in the present progressive and in the present perfect tense. The representation will come to be conceivable if the concrete particulars addressed in the present perfect happen to be identical to those addressed also in the present progressive tense. The equality serves as a universal in the present tense. Unless the present perfect tense is equated to the present progressive in the present tense, there would be no representation. Nonetheless, there is a possibility to think of a representation under the condition that it can frequently be updated. Constant update of a representation proceeds in the present progressive tense carrying the capacity of ameliorating those inconsistencies among the completed local events registered in the preceding present perfect tense. Short-lived representation can be appreciated only when we understand and view the present tense from the internalist perspective. The internalist present tense actualizes only in the limited interval over which the present perfect tense locally happens to be identical to the present progressive. Representation in the internalist present tense can cope with intrinsically dynamic situations through undermining the present tense while constantly eliminating the conflicts between the underlying present progressive and present perfect tense.

Temporality Naturalized

“…Crucial for the occurrence of the reaction cycle is that the reaction cycle referred to in third-person description at this point is simply an outcome of the construction referable in second-person description. The material embodiment of a reaction cycle could proceed without recourse to its linguistic representation available in third-person description [16]. Identification of the conditions for a likely reaction cycle to sustain its own indefinite duration owes the measurement capacity internal to the cyclic organization, which is itself accessible in second-person description.…”