specious present

noun

, Philosophy.

1. a short time span in which change and duration are alleged to be directly experienced.

Example Sentences

Put another way, historical perspectives conceived in what Becker termed “the specious present” have a sell-by date. 

From Salon

Spatial and temporal relations must sometimes be included, for example in the case of a swift motion falling wholly within the specious present.

From Project Gutenberg

So far as the two events are practically adjacent in one specious present, this continuity of passage may be directly perceived.

From Project Gutenberg

Any concept of all nature as immediately known is always a concept of some duration though it may be enlarged in its temporal thickness beyond the possible specious present of any being known to us as existing within nature.

From Project Gutenberg

When the finger-tip leaves the filled space, part of it, because of its length, has already, as it were, left the specious present, and has suffered the foreshortening effect of being relegated to the past.

From Project Gutenberg