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Deng Natalja

Yonsei University · Psychology

About the Lab

Professor Deng Natalja's research lab focuses on metaphysical and philosophical issues surrounding time, death, and divine eternity. The lab explores the nature of temporal experience, the coherence of A-theory versus B-theory of time, and the metaphysical foundations of deprivation in death. It also investigates the concept of divine eternity and its implications for theology, science, and philosophy of religion. The work bridges metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and philosophical theology with a strong emphasis on conceptual clarity and critical engagement with contemporary debates.

timedeathdivine eternitytemporal experiencemetaphysics

Research Overview

Papers
44
Total Citations
572
Papers (5y)
14
Primary Field
Psychology

Research Output Trend

Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.

Publications per year (5y)
14total
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
Citations per year (5y)
23total
20212022202320242025

Selected Papers

15
1
Article|108 citations·2013
On Explaining Why Time Seems to Pass
Natalja Deng
SJR Q2The Southern Journal of PhilosophyOA

Abstract Usually, the B ‐theory of time is taken to involve the claim that time does not, in reality, pass; after all, on the B ‐theory, nothing really becomes present and then more and more past, times do not come into existence successively, and which facts obtain does not change. For this reason, many B ‐theorists have recently tried to explain away one or more aspect(s) of experience that they and their opponents take to constitute an experience of time as passing. In this paper, I examine t

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
2
Article|70 citations·2012
FINE'S MCTAGGART, TEMPORAL PASSAGE, AND THE A VERSUS B‐DEBATE
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1RatioOA

Abstract I offer an interpretation and a partial defense of Kit Fine's ‘Argument from Passage’, which is situated within his reconstruction of McTaggart's paradox. Fine argues that existing A‐theoretic approaches to passage are no more dynamic, i.e. capture passage no better, than the B‐theory. I argue that this comparative claim is correct. Our intuitive picture of passage, which inclines us towards A‐theories, suggests more than coherent A‐theories can deliver. In Finean terms, the picture req

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
3
Article|61 citations·2017
What is temporal ontology?
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Philosophical Studies
Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
4
Article|51 citations·2013
Our Experience of Passage on the B-Theory
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Erkenntnis
Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
5
Article|47 citations·2015
Religion for naturalists
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1International Journal for Philosophy of ReligionOA
PhilosophyArts and Humanities
6
Book Chapter|31 citations·2019
One Thing After Another: Why the Passage of Time Is Not an Illusion
Natalja Deng
Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
7
Article|28 citations·2015
How A-theoretic Deprivationists Should Respond to Lucretius
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Journal of the American Philosophical AssociationOA

ABSTRACT: What, if anything, makes death bad for the deceased themselves? Deprivationists hold that death is bad for the deceased iff it deprives them of intrinsic goods they would have enjoyed had they lived longer. This view faces the problem that birth too seems to deprive one of goods one would have enjoyed had one been born earlier, so that it too should be bad for one. There are two main approaches to the problem. In this paper, I explore the second approach, by Anthony Brueckner and John

PhilosophyArts and Humanities
8
Article|25 citations·2015
Debates in the Metaphysics of Time
Natalja Deng
International Studies in the Philosophy of Science

This book is unusual in its breadth. It is a collection of original essays by metaphysicians, philosophers of mind, and philosophers of religion, loosely grouped into three parts: ‘Metaphysics and ...

PhilosophyArts and Humanities
9
Article|22 citations·2017
On ‘Experiencing time’: a response to Simon Prosser
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Inquiry

In his recent book ‘Experiencing time’ (OUP), Simon Prosser discusses a wide variety of topics relating to temporal experience, in a way that is accessible both to those steeped in the philosophy of mind, and to those more familiar with the philosophy of time. He forcefully argues for the conclusion that the B-theorist of time can account for the temporal appearances. In this article, I offer a chapter by chapter response.

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
10
book|17 citations·2018
God and Time
Natalja Deng
Cambridge University Press eBooks

The God of Western religion is said to be eternal. But what does that mean? Is God somehow beyond time, living a life that does not involve one thing after another? Or is God's relationship to time much more like ours, so that God's eternality just consists in there being no time at which God doesn't exist? Even for non-believers, these issues have interesting implications for the relation between historical and scientific findings on the one hand, and religion on the other. This Element introdu

PhilosophyArts and Humanities
11
Article|16 citations·2010
‘Beyond A- and B-Time’ Reconsidered
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Philosophia
Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
12
letter|16 citations·2023
Commentary: “Physical time within human time” and “Bridging the neuroscience and physics of time”
Natalja Deng
SJR Q2Frontiers in PsychologyOA

Both (Gruber, Block, & Montemayor, 2022) and (Buonomano & Rovelli, 2021) contain interesting interdisciplinary proposals for how to think about the relation between humans' experience of time and what time is like. This is a complex topic. Tackling it requires confronting difficult questions about (i) which features of experience and which features of time are difficult to fit together (if any), (ii) which discipline(s) should attempt the required explanation(s) (if any), and (iii) what these ex

Cognitive NeuroscienceNeuroscience
13
Article|11 citations·2017
Making Sense of the Growing Block View
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Philosophia
Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPsychology
14
Book Chapter|7 citations·2017
Temporal Experience and the A Versus B Debate
Natalja Deng

This chapter provides an overview of the A versus B debate and, following Baron et al, distinguishes between two B-theoretic responses to the A-theoretic argument from experience, veridicalism and illusionism. It argues for veridicalism over illusionism, by examining our experiences as of presentness and as of time passing. The chapter suggests that the deflationary view can provide support for veridicalism. In saying that the content of temporal experience is partly A-theoretic, the veridicalis

Sociology and Political ScienceSocial Sciences
15
Article|6 citations·2015
On Whether B-Theoretic Atheists Should Fear Death
Natalja Deng
SJR Q1Philosophia
PhilosophyArts and Humanities

Research Areas

Experimental and Cognitive PsychologyPhilosophySociology and Political ScienceCognitive NeuroscienceGeneral Decision SciencesAstronomy and Astrophysics

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