A CONTAINER VIEW OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND ALTERED TIME EXPERIENCES

In the contemporary philosophy of mind, the notion of subjective experience plays a central role. One of the most interesting dimensions of the subjective experience is its time dimension. In this paper I will attempt to develop a plausible model of subjective experience of time based on the following conceptual tools: on the metaphor of the ‘Specious Present’ developed by William James and on the concept of the ‘Thick Moment’ of consciousness, introduced by the British psychologist Nicholas Humphrey. Subsequently, I will deal with two basic properties of time experience: change and duration. I will examine their relation to the previously introduced container view of consciousness. In the second part of this paper, I will apply this model of conscious time experience on some ‘extraordinary’ time experiences to see how this model can accommodate this type of experiences.