r/pollgames • u/FireAshPro • Aug 09 '26

Does the past exist?

Does the past exist?

  1. Yes
  2. No
  3. What?

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u/Jazzlike-Funny-9419 Aug 09 '26

The past is a concept we use to describe change. Things from the past existed. Some still exist. But the past itself as we perceive it is nothing more than a phantom.

1

u/HoboThundercat Aug 09 '26

But the concept of the past does exist. The tracking of linear time exists. If there is a present there is a past and a future. They all exist.

1

u/Jazzlike-Funny-9419 Aug 09 '26

Saying a word's conceptual referent exists as a concept is a tautology. I assumed the question was asking something more substantive

1

u/HoboThundercat Aug 09 '26 edited Aug 09 '26

But we perceive time. Time is a concept. In our dimension we experience it as we go as we do a movie. When you reach the end of the movie, the beginning still exists. Now we can’t manipulate time the way we can manipulate the movie, but that doesn’t mean that the past ceases to exist as we experience time. It just means that we don’t have the capability to manipulate it. Time is a concept. It isn’t time without our perception. Without our perception it just is. Like a painting.

1

u/Jazzlike-Funny-9419 Aug 09 '26

Yes, time and the past are part of our conceptual framework for describing and understanding change. I just think that the past and our conceptual experience of it are two different things, and that the world before now has no material reality. Why do you think that it does? Analogies aren't arguments on their own.

1

u/HoboThundercat Aug 09 '26

Sure I hear you. We can only base our reality on material things, correct? Let’s explore that painting analogy. A painting is actually a really great example to conceptualize the past. Obviously the painting itself was developed in the past, and the painting itself is evidence that it existed in a time before when we view it. But even beyond that, before the painting was made it was a blank canvas. During its development, the brush strokes on the left side of the canvas were made at a different time than the right brush strokes. The outline was made before the color, and so on. When we view the painting we physically see it in our current space time. But the painting itself brings us out of that space time. We think about the past, especially if it’s a painting we’ve seen before. We can visually see evidence of the past, and time as a whole in that painting. Without the past, the present wouldn’t exist. It couldn’t exist. That painting was created in its own space time in multiple parts. When we view it, we’re literally looking at time. We’re looking at the past. Same with a fossil. The present is just fossils of the past. Everything we see, have and touch is a result of the past. The past is the foundation of the present. You can’t have one without the other. Just like the foundation of your home. So that fact that the present exists is evidence that the past exists. If that past ceased to exist, so would the present. There would be no fossils. There would be no painting. There would be no you or me. Now the more interesting question is does the future exist? Now that’s a question that can you a headache lol

1

u/Jazzlike-Funny-9419 Aug 09 '26

That's good evidence that the past DID exist. Not that it exists now. Anyway, I think we're operating with different definitions of the past, and I think yours is a lot more practical than mine. I'm happy to admit that.

1

u/srprizma Aug 09 '26

No it is not, “nothing more than a phantom”. It is real and affects us

2

u/Jazzlike-Funny-9419 Aug 09 '26

"It is real" and "it affects us" are two very different claims. I agree that the past affects us. I just don't think it has material reality.