This paper aims at reexamining critically the psychological conceptof "time perception" from a philosophical point of view. Becausepsychology has implicitly presupposed Newtonian physics as its researchframework, it has been wrongly believed that there is theperception of time itself. On the other hand, James Gibson has correctlyclaimed that we should think events as the primary realitiesand of time as an abstraction from them. According to Gibson, timedoes not exist as such, but it is rather a concept abstracted from realities.Accordingly, events are perceived, but there is no time perception.Following and extending the line of Gibson's argument, Iwill conclude that the image of "time arrow" or "flow of time" is aharmful, misleading metaphor for understanding time and time perception.What really exists is only the perception of continual eventsand processes. It is a human being who demarcates the line betweenthe past and the present in a continual process in the world. Perceptionof the future is the perception of the potential in the world.So, perception of the past and that of the future is completely asymmetric.

特集 : 渡辺茂君・増田直衛君退職記念
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