{{Short description|Period of time occurring now}}
{{About|the concept of current time|a gift|Gift|other uses|Present (disambiguation)}}
{{Time sidebar|concepts}}
The '''present''' also called the '''present moment''', is the period of [[time]] that is occurring right now. The present is in contrast to the [[past]], the period of time that has already occurred; and the [[future]], the period of time that has yet to occur.
It is sometimes represented as a [[hyperplane]] in [[space-time]],[{{Cite book |last=Sattig |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qYNv2zpHOmwC |title=The Language and Reality of Time |date=2006-05-11 |publisher=Clarendon Press |isbn=978-0-19-927952-4 |pages=37 |language=en}}] typically called "now", although modern physics demonstrates that such a hyperplane cannot be defined uniquely for observers in relative motion. The present may also be viewed as [[Specious present|a duration]].[{{Cite book |last=James |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JLcAAAAAMAAJ |title=The Principles of Psychology |date=1890 |publisher=H. Holt |pages=609 |language=en}}][{{Cite book |last=Hodder |first=Alfred |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uZ5RAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA36 |title=The Adversaries of the Sceptic: Or, The Specious Present, a New Inquiry Into Human Knowledge |date=1901 |publisher=S. Sonnenschein & Company, Limited |pages=36–56 |language=en}}]
==Historiography==
[[Contemporary history]] describes the [[historical]] [[timeframe]] immediately relevant to the present time and is a certain perspective of [[modern history]].
==Philosophy and religion==
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| Quotations
{{quotation|You shouldn't chase after the past or place expectations on the future. What is past is left behind. The future is as yet unreached. Whatever quality is present you clearly see right there, right there.|[[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]]|Bhaddekaratta Sutta[{{Cite web|url=https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.131.than.html|title=Bhaddekaratta Sutta: An Auspicious Day|website=www.accesstoinsight.org}}]}}
{{quotation|What we perceive as present is the vivid fringe of memory tinged with anticipation.|[[Alfred North Whitehead]]|The Concept of Nature[Whitehead, Alfred North. ''The Concept of Nature'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1930), p. 73]}}
|}
===Philosophy of time===
{{main article|Philosophy of time}}
"The present" raises the question: "How is it that all sentient beings experience ''now'' at the same time?"[McInerney, Peter K. (1992). ''Time and Experience.'' Temple University Press. p. 44. {{ISBN|978-1-56639-010-1}}.] There is no logical reason why this should be the case and no easy answer to the question.{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} The present moment has also been investigated through the perspective of [[Subjective character of experience|subjective experience]], consisting of continuously changing sensory experiences and mental events, and by contrasting this first-person perspective with third-person objective conceptions of time, such as clock time.[{{cite journal |last1=Karunamuni |first1=N |last2=Wood |first2=T |last3=Galante |first3=J. |title=Exploring the mind-brain relationship to advance mental health research and practice |journal=Current Psychology |date=December 2025 |volume=44 |issue=24 |pages=19088–19108 |doi=10.1007/s12144-025-08345-2 |url=https://osf.io/z9g83 }}]
===In Buddhism===
[[Buddhism]] and many of its associated [[paradigm]]s emphasize the importance of living in the present moment—being fully aware of what is happening, and not dwelling on the [[past]] or worrying about the [[future]].[Hạnh, Thích Nhất (1990). ''Our appointment with life: the Buddha's teaching on living in the present.'' Parallax Press. p. 53. {{ISBN|978-0-938077-36-7}}.][{{cite journal |vauthors=Karunamuni N, Weerasekera R |title= Theoretical Foundations to Guide Mindfulness Meditation: A Path to Wisdom |journal= Current Psychology |volume= 38 |issue= 3 |pages= 627–646 |date=Jun 2017 | doi= 10.1007/s12144-017-9631-7|s2cid= 149024504 |url= http://mindrxiv.org/mfs63/ }}] This does not mean that they encourage [[hedonism]], but merely that constant focus on one's [[mindstream]] (rather than ruminating on future considerations or past reminiscence) will aid one in relieving suffering.[{{cite book |last=Bodhi |first=B. |author-link=Bhikkhu Bodhi |date=2006 |title=The Noble Eightfold Path: The way to the end of suffering |publisher=Buddhist Publication Society |location=Kandy, Sri Lanka |url=http://www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh308.pdf |isbn=978-955-24-0116-9}}][{{cite book |title = What the Buddha Taught |last = Rahula |first = Walpola |author-link = Walpola Rahula |year = 1974 |publisher = Grove Press |isbn = 9780802130310 |page = 72 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_WduwVbiLSsC&q=what+the+buddha+taught |access-date = 2010-04-28 }}][Consolatio Philosophae, Bk. 4] [[Thomas Aquinas]] offers the metaphor of a watchman, representing God, standing on a height looking down on a valley to a road where past, present and future, represented by the individuals and their actions strung out along its length, are all visible simultaneously to God.[{{Cite web |last=Cline |first=Austin |title=God Is Eternal: Timeless vs. Everlasting |url=https://www.learnreligions.com/god-is-eternal-251051 |access-date=2023-10-01 |website=Learn Religions |language=en}}] Therefore, God's knowledge is not tied to any particular date.[Irwin, William; White, Mark D. (2009). ''Watchmen and Philosophy: A Rorschach Test.'' John Wiley and Sons. p. 128.]
==Physical science==
===Special relativity===
[[Image:World line.svg|upright=1.2|right|thumb|A visualisation of the present (dark blue plane) and past and future [[light cone]]s in 2D space.]] The original intent of the accompanying [[light cone]]s diagram was to portray a 3-dimensional object having access to the past, present, and future in the present moment (4th dimension).{{clarify|date=March 2015}}
It [[Logical consequence|follows from]] [[Albert Einstein]]'s [[Special relativity|Special Theory of Relativity]] that there is [[Relativity of simultaneity|no such thing as absolute simultaneity]]. When care is taken to [[Operational definition|operationalise]] "the present", it follows that the events that can be labeled as "simultaneous" with a given event, can not be in [[Causality (physics)|direct cause-effect relationship]]. Such collections of events are perceived differently by different observers. Instead, when focusing on "now" as the events [[perception|perceived]] directly, not as a recollection or a speculation, for a given observer "now" takes the form of the observer's past [[light cone]]. The light cone of a given event is objectively defined as the collection of events in [[Causality (physics)|causal relationship]] to that event, but each event has a different associated light cone. One has to conclude that in relativistic models of physics there is no place for "the present" as an absolute element of reality, and only refers to things that are close to us.[{{Cite book|last1=Rovelli |first1=Carlo |author-link1=Carlo Rovelli |title=The order of time|others=Segre, Erica; Carnell, Simon (translation) |date=8 May 2018|isbn=978-0-7352-1610-5|location=New York|oclc=1020300173}}] Einstein phrased this as: ''"People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion"''.[Letter from Einstein to the family of his lifelong friend [[Michele Besso]], after learning of his death, (March 1955) as quoted in ''Science and the Search for God: Disturbing the Universe'' (1979) by [[Freeman Dyson]], Ch. 17, "A Distant Mirror", ][{{cite web |url = http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/einsteinsgod/unheardcuts.shtml |title = Einstein's God (NPR) |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080105183119/http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/einsteinsgod/unheardcuts.shtml |archive-date = 5 January 2008 |access-date = 31 March 2018 |work = [[Speaking of Faith]] |last = Tippett |first = Krista |author-link = Krista Tippett |publisher = [[American Public Media]] }}]
===Cosmology===
{{further|Physical cosmology|Cosmic time|Chronology of the universe}}
In [[physical cosmology]], the present time in the [[chronology of the universe]] is estimated at 13.8 billion years after the [[Big Bang|singularity]] determining the [[arrow of time]].
In terms of the [[Expansion of the universe#Expansion history|cosmic expansion history]], it is in the [[dark-energy-dominated era]], after the universe's matter content has become diluted enough for [[dark energy]] to dominate the total energy density. It is also in the universe's [[Stelliferous Era]], after enough time for [[supercluster]]s to have formed (at about 5 billion years), but before the [[accelerating expansion of the universe]] has removed the local supercluster beyond the [[cosmological horizon]] (at about 150 billion years).[{{cite journal |last1 = Krauss |first1 = Lawrence M. |author-link1=Lawrence Krauss |last2 = Starkman |first2 = Glenn D. |year = 2000 |title = Life, the Universe, and Nothing: Life and Death in an Ever-expanding Universe |journal = Astrophysical Journal |volume = 531 |issue = 1 |pages = 22–30 |doi = 10.1086/308434 |bibcode = 2000ApJ...531...22K |arxiv = astro-ph/9902189 |s2cid = 18442980 }}]
===Archaeology, geology, etc.===
In [[radiocarbon dating]], the "present" is [[Before Present|defined as AD 1950]].
== Grammar ==
In [[English grammar]], actions are classified according to one of the following twelve verb tenses: past ([[past]], [[Uses of English verb forms#Past progressive/continuous|past continuous]], [[past perfect]], or [[past perfect continuous]]), present (present, [[present continuous]], [[present perfect]], or [[present perfect continuous]]), or future ([[future tense|future]], [[future continuous]], [[future perfect]], or [[future perfect continuous]]).[{{cite web |author1= |title=Verb tenses |url=https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/verb-tenses |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023202126/https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/grammar/verb-tenses |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 23, 2016 |website=English Oxford Living Dictionaries |publisher=Oxford University Press |access-date=25 June 2018}}] The present tense refers to things that are currently happening or are always the case.[{{cite web |author1=Merriam-Webster |title=Present Perfect |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/present%20perfect |website=Merriam-Webster.com |publisher=Merriam-Webster |access-date=27 July 2018 |format=Web |date=n.d.}}] For example, in the sentence, "She has walked home," the verb phrase "has walked" is in the present perfect tense because it describes an action that began in the past and is finished as of the current reference to the action. Finally, verbs in the present perfect continuous tense refer to actions that have been continuing up until the current time, thus combining the characteristics of both the continuous and perfect tenses.