Anticipation's Influence on Time and the Future
Anticipation plays a multilayered role in shaping our perception of time and the future, as it directly influences our emotions, our notions of the flow of time, and even how we perceive our freedom within the course of historical and natural progress. On one hand, the emotion of fear serves as a striking example of this interconnection. According to the text, fear is regarded as a form of anticipatory expectation that arises in response to the future: “...one can only be afraid of what 'will be.' But what 'will be,' which stokes fear, already partly enters the 'is'—the present. Only that which lies ahead of the present, namely the immediate future, evokes fear. The moment of fear is the 'presencing' of a formidable future. The anticipated good evokes hope and reliance. Fear and hope are the two poles of the emotional anticipation of the future...” (source: link txt). This underscores that our internal attitude toward the future is determined not only by objective time frames but also by the emotional hue with which anticipation serves as the bridge between the present and what is to come.
On the other hand, this influence extends to a deeper existential level. Anticipating the future, as an element of existential time, unifies the past, present, and future, allowing a person to simultaneously experience freedom of choice and the constraints imposed by the laws of historical progress. For instance, it is stated: “a person, on the one hand, has the freedom to choose their actions, while on the other, their freedom is limited by the vectorial and cyclical direction of historical and natural time, the laws of the cycle, and the irreversibility of history. The synergistic interaction of these three forces across three times determines the course of history” (source: link txt). Here, anticipation becomes not merely an emotional state but an element that synthesizes different layers of perception—from the emotional-impulsive to the philosophically regulatory.
Moreover, the heterogeneity of time—its compression, expansion, and occasional ruptures—further illustrates how expectations can “distort” the very perception of temporal flow. One source notes: “Time as if has ended, and then, you see, began whistling and swirled in an all-encompassing vortex...” (source: link txt), indicating the subjectivity of time perception under the influence of emotional and cognitive expectations.
Thus, the multilayered impact of anticipation is reflected in our perception of time and the future through a combination of emotional reactions (fear and hope), existential contemplation of temporality, and subjective shifts in the sense of duration. This understanding reveals that our vision of the future and interpretation of time are inseparably linked to how we experience anticipation, rather than being determined solely by objective temporal limits.
Supporting citation(s):
"In this sense, fear is a form of anticipatory expectation... Only what lies ahead of the present, that is, the immediate future, evokes fear. The moment of fear is the 'presencing' of a formidable future. The anticipated good evokes hope and reliance. Fear and hope are the two poles of the emotional anticipation of the future, the two poles of human attitude toward the future. Human life oscillates between fear and hope, for we all live more in the future and with the future than solely in the present." (source: link txt)
"Fear is intimately connected with time. If latent fear (timidity) is a particular state of consciousness, then explicit fear is always an 'intentional' phenomenon directed toward the anticipated future..." (source: link txt)
"But union with Eternity is possible only through an eschatological overcoming of time... The synergistic interaction of the three aforementioned forces across three times determines the course of history." (source: link txt)
"Time, ultimately, in some sense, is reversible... The cosmos is, in general, infinitely diverse in its temporal structure." (source: link txt)