Concept
Egocentric presentism
Overview
Egocentric presentism is a form of solipsism introduced by Caspar Hare in which other persons can be conscious, but their experiences are simply not present.
Similarly, in related work, Hare argues for a theory of perspectival realism in which other perspectives do exist, but the present perspective has a defining intrinsic property.
In one example that Hare uses to illustrate his theory (starting on page 354 of the official version of his paper), you learn that you are one of two people, named A and B, who have just been in a train crash; and that A is about to have incredibly painful surgery. You cannot remember your name. According to Hare, naturally, you hope to be B. The point of the example is that you know everything relevant that there is to know about the objective world; all that is missing is your position in it, that is, whose experiences are present, A's or B's. This example is easily handled by egocentric presentism because under this theory, the case where the present experiences are A's is fundamentally different from the case where the present experiences are B's. Hare points out that similar examples can be given to support theories like presentism in the philosophy of time.
Several other philosophers have written reviews of Hare's work on this topic. Giovanni Merlo has given a detailed comparison to his own closely related subjectivist theory.
Vincent Conitzer is another philosopher who has discussed similar ideas. In the paper "The Personalized A-Theory of Time and Perspective", Conitzer makes the case that the metaphysics of the self are connected to the metaphysics of time. He argues that arguments in favor of the A-theory of time are more effective as arguments for the combined position of both A-theory being true and the "I" being metaphysically privileged from other perspectives.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
The Critical theory starts originally from the distinction of elements presented in the analysis of experience, viz. the matter of sense, and its universal relations. Taking into account Hume's criticism on this distinction as given in the preceding section, viz. that sensation does not explicitly apprehend more than an individual or more than a mere event, it insists at the same time on the _fact_ that universality…
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, The Logic of Hegel
States what Egocentric presentism is.
Such a principle may be obtained from the consideration of _time_. The one all-embracing time, like the one all-embracing space, is a construction; there is no _direct_ time-relation between particulars belonging to my perspective and particulars belonging to another man's. On the other hand, any two particulars of which I am aware are either simultaneous or successive, and their simultaneity or successiveness is…
Bertrand Russell, Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays
States what Egocentric presentism is.
A bundle of this latter sort, at a given time, is called a "perspective"; taken throughout a period of time, it is called a "biography." Subjectivity is the characteristic of perspectives and biographies, the characteristic of giving the view of the world from a certain place. We saw in Lecture VII that this characteristic involves none of the other characteristics that are commonly associated with mental phenomena…
Bertrand Russell, The Analysis of Mind
States what Egocentric presentism is.
Related ideas
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Consciousness.