Biography

Dr. Sean Enda Power is a research associate of the Department of Philosophy.

His published books and articles focus on the relationship between the philosophy of time and other areas of philosophical enquiry, including AI, philosophy of mind (especially perception, consciousness, and cognitive science), art, and epistemology.

With a PhD from the University of Leeds, he is previously an Irish Research Council (IRC) Fellow and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Time, University of Sydney. He has taught at UCC, TCD, University of Leeds, MTU, and the University of Sydney.

Beyond his research, Dr. Power actively engages with the public through lectures, articles, and short courses, promoting philosophy and making complex philosophical ideas accessible to non-academics.

Peer Reviewed Academic Publications

Books

• Forthcoming (2025). The Temporality of Ethics and AI (Palgrave MacMillan)
• 2021. A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Time (Routledge)
• 2018. Philosophy of Time and Perceptual Experience (Routledge)

Journal Articles and Chapters

• Forthcoming. ‘Time’, Book chapter on Transformative Experience (ed. Lydia Amir)
• 2017. ‘Introduction’, In special themed issue on ‘Time Consciousness’. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 24 (3-4)
• 2016. 'Relative and Absolute Presence', in Book: The Philosophy and Psychology of Time: Continuity, Presence and the Timing of Experience, eds. Mölder, B., Arstila, V. & Øhrstrøm, P., Springer
• 2015. ‘The Psychophysics of Order and Anisotropy: Comment on Riemer’, Consciousness & Cognition, 38, 198-204
• 2014. 'Perceiving Multiple Locations in Time: A Phenomenological Defence of Tenseless Theory', Topoi, 34 (1), pp. 249-255 (DOI: 10.1007/s11245-014-9253-8)
• 2013. 'Perceiving External Things and the Time-Lag Argument', European Journal of Philosophy, 21 (1), pp. 94-117 (DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0378.2010.00436.x)
• 2012. 'The Metaphysics of 'the Specious Present'', Erkenntnis, 77 (1), pp. 121-132 (DOI: 10.1007/s10670-011-9287-x)
• 2011. 'Temporal Illusions – Philosophical Considerations', in Book: Multidisciplinary Aspects of Time and Time Perception, Springer, pp 11-35, eds. Vatakis, A, Esposito, A, Giagkou, M., Cummins, F., Papadelis, G. (DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-21478-3_2)
• 2010. 'Complex Experience, Relativity and Abandoning Simultaneity', Journal of Consciousness Studies, 17 (3-4), pp. 231-256

Other academic publications

• 2019. Co-editor (with Valtteri Arstila, Adrian Bardon, and Argiro Vatakis). ‘The Illusions of Time: Philosophical and Psychological Essays on Timing and Time Perception’ (Palgrave MacMillan): https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-22048-8 
• 2019. ‘Against Illusions of Duration’. The Illusions of Time: Philosophical and Psychological Essays on Timing and Time Perception, eds. Arstila, V., Bardon, A., Power, S., Vatakis, A.
• 2009. Invited paper. 'A Philosophical Introduction to the Experience of Time', NeuroQuantology Online. See my website: https://timeandillusion.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/philintro.pdf

Academic awards

• January 2017. Irish Research Council ‘New Horizons’ Interdisciplinary Collaboration Award
• June 2016. Visiting Fellowship at the Sydney Centre for the Foundations of Science
• December 2011. Irish Research Council ‘New Ideas’ Award
• October 2010. Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (for 2010 - 2012)

Academic Presentations

• Forthcoming. Time and AI. TBC. Grad conference at Department of Philosophy, University of Minho, Portugal
• April 2024. “Is our concept of time in the ‘specious present’ abstract or concrete?” Workshop: Abstract Concepts, Perception, and Language: What we think and how we say it, Semantics, Pragmatics, and Philosophy (SPP) research group, University of Cambridge
• July 2020. “Prudence, Ethics, and Imagining the Future (a WIP about rationality and the philosophy of time)”, WIP series, Irish Philosophical Society
• December 2019. ‘Against Illusions of Duration’. Time and the Mind. Joint psychology and philosophy conference, University of Leeds
• December 2018. Title TBD. Temporal Experience: Perspectives from Philosophy and Psychology. Department of Philosophy, University of Leeds
• February 2018. ‘Philosophy of Time Perception’. Guest lecturer. ‘Psychology of Perception’ undergraduate module, Department of Psychology, National University of Ireland Galway
• July 2017. ‘Neural Representation and the Philosophy of Time’. NeuroSpin, Paris, France
• July 2017. ‘Temporal Constitution, Temporal Content, and Time's Structuring of Perceptual Experience’. Weekly seminar series. Institute Jean Nicod, Paris, France
• June 2017. ‘Illusions in Time’. Conference of the International Association for the Philosophy of Time. Gargnano, Italy
• March 2017. ‘Design in Philosophy’. Guest lecturer. Department of Engineering, Trinity College Dublin
• October 2016. ‘Perceiving Distant and Present Things in Time’. Time in Perception and Awareness workshop, as part of the ‘Thought and Sense’ Project, University of Oslo, Norway
• April 2016. ‘Illusions of Duration’, American Philosophical Association: Pacific Division, San Francisco
• February 2016. ‘Illusions of Motion’. Irish Philosophical Club. Ireland
• November 2015. ‘The Experience of Time’, guest speaker for UCD MA module in metaphysics. University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland
• July 2015, ‘Is Time in Performance a Distortion of Time in Everyday Life?’ Performance Time - Everyday Time. Interdisciplinary Workshop, University of Freiburg, Germany
• June 2015. ‘Arguments against Illusions of Duration’, Towards a Science of Consciousness (TSC). Interdisciplinary Conference, University of Helsinki, Finland
• January 2014. 'Perceiving Multiple Locations in Time'. Philosophy Colloquium, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
• October 2013. 'Imagination and Illusion', Symposium on Imagination, UCC
• August 2013. Two talks: 'Relative and Absolute Presence'; 'The Metaphysics of Time and Change'. The Philosophy and Psychology of Time: Continuity, Presence and the Timing of Experience. Interdisciplinary Workshop, University of Turku, Finland
• March 2012. 'Measuring Real Time', Measuring Time. Interdisciplinary Workshop, UCC
• November 2011. 'The Real Temporal Structure of Experience', Time and The Conscious Brain, psychology, neuroscience, & philosophy symposium, Institute of Advanced Studies, Delmenhorst, Germany
• May 2011. 'The Metaphysics of the 'Specious Present'', Time and Experience, workshop, University of Turku
• March 2011. 'Temporal Illusions – Some Philosophical Considerations', Joint Departmental Seminar Series. Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience, University of Glasgow, UK
• February 2011. 'The Metaphysics of Time', Interdisciplinary Winter School. Department of Communication and Psychology, University of Aalborg, Denmark

Writing and presentations outside academia

Both public and in the technical communications industry

• January 2023. 'Documenting Trustworthy AI', industry article for tcworld, technical communications magazine: https://www.tcworld.info/e-magazine/intelligent-information/documenting-trustworthy-ai-1226/ )
• December 2022. 'The Time Machine', Public talk,  Maureen's, Cork
• 2019 – 2020. Respondent. Philosophy by Postcard. https://www.philosophybypostcard.com/philosophers/our-philosophers/ .
• March 2019. Why does time fly? Maybe you’re not paying enough attention’, Unthinkable column, The Irish Times: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/why-does-time-fly-maybe-you-re-not-paying-enough-attention-1.3995164 
• October 2018. ‘Multiple persons and split brains’. Public presentation, Hack Circus, Sheffield, United Kingdom/online
• September 2017. ‘‘I Remember It Well’: Understanding History and False Memory’. Culture Night annual series. Public talk, Waterford Library, Waterford, Ireland
• July 2017. ‘Time Travel in Primer’. Public talk. ‘Dark Skies science film season, Science Gallery/Irish Film Institute’s collaborative event
• April 2017. ‘Belief, Trust & Knowledge’. Site Gallery’s Public Talk Series. Site Gallery, Sheffield
• April 2017. ‘Should We Forget?’ Blackrock Library, Dublin
• December 2016 & March 2017. Public talks. Philosophy Department, Trinity College Dublin.
  • ‘Is Time Travel Possible?’ (March 2017)
  • ‘Great 20th-21st Century Philosophers: David Chalmers’ (December 2016)
• March 2017. ‘Is Living in the Present a Good Idea?’ Unthinkable, The Irish Times: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/unthinkable-is-living-in-the-now-such-a-good-idea-1.2567719 
• 2014 - 2016. Philosophically themed invited articles for Hack Circus (quarterly magazine on art, technology, and science), including articles on alien intelligence and non-intelligence
• February 2016. Public presentation. ‘3 Nights Recurring’. Trinity College, Dublin. With artist Grace Weir (www.graceweir.com) and TCD physicist Shane Bergin
• December 2015. Public talk. ‘Time in the Future’. Talbot Gallery, Dublin. With artist Sinead MacDonald
• November 2014. Public talk. ‘Changing the Past’. Draiocht Art Centre. Invited opening night talk for artist Sinead MacDonald’s exhibition
• July 2012. Public talk. 'Making Time'. Artists' Talk, IMMA. With Grace Weir