Mike Mariani at Noema:
Scientists and academics have been grappling with some of these questions since the 19th century. In the 1890s, renowned French philosopher Paul Janet proposed that human beings experience time in proportion to their age. When we’re 10 years old, one year is fully 10% of our entire lifetimes; as a result, we process it with slow, substantive vividness. When we’re 50 years old, on the other hand, that same year represents only 2% of our lives, and we experience it with corresponding ephemerality and diminished gravitas. Janet’s theory would come to be known as “logarithmic time perception,” a reference to the measurement scale that represents mathematical figures proportionately (it’s sometimes referred to as the “time alive” theory).
William James picked up where Janet left off, positing in “Principles of Psychology” that time moves more slowly for young people, who slingshot themselves into fresh experiences every day. “Apprehension is vivid, retentiveness strong, and our recollections of that time, like those of a time spent in rapid and interesting travel, are of something intricate, multitudinous, and long-drawn-out,” he writes.
more here.
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