← See the axis · Temporal orientation
ObjectionThe instant that slips by
By living only the instant, one skims over life without ever inhabiting it.
Objects to
- Living in the present, we are told, frees us from regret and expectation. But the instant, by nature, does not last: barely tasted, one must already move on to the next.
- This race from pleasure to pleasure, from one high point to the next, looks all but identical to what called : not rest, but a restlessness that keeps us from being alone with ourselves.
- Lacking a thread that ties its days together, the presentist risks a life without depth: a succession of vivid, quickly forgotten instants that gather into nothing, no work, no lasting bond, no memory.
Therefore So to inhabit the present alone may not be peace, but another flight, a gentler one: the flight that dodges depth instead of dodging boredom.
Deepenings
A tourist in one's own days
- One recognizes this life by a sign: everything in it is consumed, nothing is kept. Experiences pile up like images on a screen, leaving no trace.
- The reproach is not enjoying the present, but doing only that: by letting nothing ripen, one passes through one's years as a visitor, never as a dweller.
Possible resolutions of the objection
Challenges