# The temporal structure of experience **Opening (not a real abstract):** This chapter defends a naïve view of the relation between the temporal structure of the objects of experience, and the temporal structure of experience itself. According to the naïve view, when all goes well, your stream of consciousness simply inherits the temporal structure of the events which are its contents. You ‘take in’ the temporal structure of the events you witness in witnessing them. As a result the temporal structure of experience matches the temporal structure of its objects. In cases of illusion, it is as if this is so. Thus, in every case, the temporal structure of experience matches the apparent temporal structure of the objects of experience. Such a view faces both philosophical and empirical objections. The most prominent philosophical objection is that the naïve view is incompatible with a principle often labelled