Concept

Future

Overview

The future is the time after the past and the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist can be categorized as either permanent, meaning that it will exist forever, or temporary, meaning that it will end. In the Occidental view, which uses a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected timeline that is anticipated to occur. In special relativity, the future is considered absolute future, or the future light cone.

In the philosophy of time, presentism is the belief that only the present exists and the future and the past are unreal. Religions consider the future when they address issues such as karma, life after death, and eschatologies that study what the end of time and the end of the world will be. Religious figures such as prophets and diviners have claimed to see into the future.

Future studies, or futurology, is the science, art, and practice of postulating possible futures. Modern practitioners stress the importance of alternative and plural futures, rather than one monolithic future, and the limitations of prediction and probability, versus the creation of possible and preferable futures. Predeterminism is the belief that the past, present, and future have already been decided.

The concept of the future has been explored extensively in cultural production, including art movements and genres devoted entirely to its elucidation, such as the 20th-century movement futurism.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Future is discussed.

14, A. 13). But forasmuch as it exists in its cause, the future can be known by us also. And if, indeed, the cause be such as to have a necessary connection with its future result, then the future is known with scientific certitude, just as the astronomer foresees the future eclipse. If, however, the cause be such as to produce a certain result more frequently than not, then can the future be known more or less…
Aquinas Thomas, Summa Theologica, Part I
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
For a man usually builds a house for the sake of the comfort and security, the "control," thereby afforded to future living rather than just for the fun--or the trouble--of building. If in such a case inspection shows that, after all, intellectual concern with the past and future is for the sake of directing present activity and giving it meaning, the conclusion may be accepted for other cases.
John Dewey, Human Nature and Conduct
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
Corollary.--The image of something past or future, that is, of a thing which we regard as in relation to time past or time future, to the exclusion of time present, is, when other conditions are equal, weaker than the image of something present; consequently an emotion felt towards what is past or future is less intense, other conditions being equal, than an emotion felt towards something present. PROP. X.
Benedictus de Spinoza, Ethics
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
For not in our fashion does He look forward to what is future, nor at what is present, nor back upon what is past; but in a manner quite different and far and profoundly remote from our way of thinking. For He does not pass from this to that by transition of thought, but beholds all things with absolute unchangeableness; so that of those things which emerge in time, the future, indeed, are not yet, and the present…
of Hippo Augustine, The City of God, Volume I
states what it is; names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader
The same is true when a great happiness awaits us. But when the future is neutral and perfectly certain, 'we do not mind it,' as we say, but give an undisturbed attention to the actual. Let now this haunting sense of futurity be thrown off its bearings or left without an object, and immediately uneasiness takes possession of the mind.
William James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
states what it is; names the idea; author linked in the graph; opens on it
Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Philosophers who discussed Future

Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

Philanthropy

Place in the tradition

Part of Anti-realism.

Explore Future in the interactive graph →