Abstract
A philosophy of the future sees the world as an unfinished process, as a continuous tendency toward new horizons. Within this process, what matters most is the tendency itself, more than its starting and ending points. To understand this situation, one needs an ontology of the not-yet, of being as processual, and therefore of being understood as an incomplete, still unfolding reality, indeterminate with respect to its endpoint, leaving room for entirely new determinations as well as for growing or maturing ones. A philosophy of the future provides guidance for distinguishing genuine from not genuine futures. Similarly, it distinguishes between utopia as focused on the endpoint and utopia as focused on everyday life, especially its humblest, tiniest aspects – which is a way of saying that the roots of the future are in the present, if only we learn to see them.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Appadurai, A. (2013). The future as cultural fact. London: Verso.
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2011). Back to the future: Autobiographical planning and the functionality of mind-wandering. Consciousness and Cognition, 20, 1604–1611.
Bloch, E. (1963). Tuebinger Einleitung in die Philosophie. Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag.
Bloch, E. (1970). A philosophy of the future. New York: Herder and Herder.
Bloch, E. (1980). Experimentum mundi. Brescia: Queriniana.
Bloch, E. (1995). The principle of hope. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Furlanetto, A., & Poli, R. (2017). ARM-anticipatory risk management. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of anticipation. New York: Springer.
Kane, M. J., Brown, L. H., McVay, J. C., Silvia, P. J., Myin-Germeys, I., & Kwapil, T. R. (2007). For whom the mind wanders, and when: An experience-sampling study of working memory and executive control in daily life. Psychological Science, 18, 614–621.
Louie, A. H., & Poli, R. (2017). Complex systems. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of anticipation. New York: Springer.
Luhmann, N. (1976). The future cannot begin: Temporal structures in modern society. Social Research, 43, 130–152.
Poli, R. (2001). The basic problem of the theory of levels of reality. Axiomathes, 12(3–4), 261–283.
Poli, R. (2006a). Levels of reality and the psychological stratum. Revue Internationale de Philosophie, 61(2), 163–180.
Poli, R. (2006b). The ontology of what is not there. In J. Malinowski & A. Pietruszczak (Eds.), Essays in logic and ontology (pp. 73–80). Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Poli, R. (2007). Three obstructions: Forms of causation, chronotopoids, and levels of reality. Axiomathes, 17(1), 1–18.
Poli, R. (2009). A glimpse into the sphere of ideal being: The ontological status of values. In B. Centi & W. Huemer (Eds.), Values and ontology: Problems and perspectives (pp. 155–170). Heusenstamm: Ontos Verlag.
Poli, R. (2010a). An introduction to the ontology of anticipation. Futures, 42(7), 769–776.
Poli, R. (2010b). Ontology: The categorial stance. In R. Poli & J. Seibt (Eds.), Theory and application of ontology. Vol 1: Philosophical perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 1–22). Berlin: Springer.
Poli, R. (2011a). Ontological categories, latents and the irrational. In J. Cumpa & E. Tegtmeier (Eds.), Ontological categories (pp. 153–163). Heusenhamm: Ontos Verlag.
Poli, R. (2011b). Step toward an explicit ontology of the future. Journal of Future Studies, 16(1), 67–78.
Poli, R. (2012). Nicolai Hartmann. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, Stanford, Stanford University, (Fall 2012 Edition).
Poli, R. (2013). Overcoming divides. On the Horizon, 21(1), 3–14.
Poli, R. (2017a). Introducing anticipation. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of anticipation. New York: Springer.
Poli, R. (2017b). Introduction to anticipation studies. Dordrecht: Springer.
Poli, R. (2017c). Social time as a multidimensional category. World Futures Review, 9(1), 19–25.
Poli, R. (2017d). Time and temporality. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of anticipation. New York: Springer.
Popper, K. R. (1990). A world of propensities. Bristol: Thoemmes.
Smallwood, J., Nind, L., & O’Connor, R. C. (2009). When is your head at? An exploration of the factors associated with the temporal focus of the wandering mind. Consciousness and Cognition, 18, 118–125.
Stawarczyk, D., Majerus, S., Maj, M., Van Der Linden, M., & D’Argembeau, A. (2011). Mind-wandering: Phenomenology and function as assessed with a novel experience sampling method. Acta Psychologica, 136, 370–381.
Stawarczyk, D., Cassol, H., & D’Augembeau, A. (2013). Phenomenology of future-oriented mind-wandering. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 425.
Tuomi, I. (2017). Ontological expansion. In R. Poli (Ed.), Handbook of anticipation. New York: Springer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Poli, R. (2018). Anticipation and the Philosophy of the Future. In: Poli, R. (eds) Handbook of Anticipation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_10-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31737-3_10-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-31737-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31737-3
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities