Objective becoming / Bradford Skow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Skow, Bradford, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Time--Philosophy.

Time.

Becoming (Philosophy).

Physical Description:

xi, 249 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, [2015]

Summary:

What does the passage of time consist in? There are some suggestive metaphors. "Events approach us, pass us, and recede from us, like sticks and leaves floating on the river of time." "We are moving from the past into the future, like ships sailing into an unknown ocean." There is surely something right and deep about these metaphors. But how close are they to the literal truth? In this book Bradford Skow argues that they are far from the literal truth. Skow's argument takes the form of a defense of the block universe theory of time, a theory that, in many ways, treats time as a dimension of reality that closely resembles the three dimensions of space. Opposed to the block universe theory of time are theories that take the metaphors more seriously: presentism, the moving spotlight theory, the growing block theory, and the branching time theory. These are theories of "robust" passage of time, or "objective becoming." Skow argues that the best of these theories, the block universe theory's most worthy opponent, is the moving spotlight theory, the theory that says that "presentness" moves along the series of times from the past into the future. Skow defends the moving spotlight theory against the objection that it is inconsistent, and the objection that it cannot answer the question of how fast time passes. He also defends it against the objection that it is incompatible with Einstein's theory of relativity. Skow proposes several ways in which the moving spotlight theory may be made compatible with the theory of relativity. Still, this book is ultimately a defense of the block universe theory, not of the moving spotlight theory. Skow holds that the best arguments against the block universe theory, and for the moving spotlight theory, start from the idea that, somehow, the passage of time is given to us in experience. Skow discusses several different arguments that start from this idea, and argues that they all fail. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Introduction: Time Passes? 1

2 The Block Universe 4

2.1 Spacetime 4

2.2 The Picture and the Theory 10

2.3 The Denial of Passage 17

2.4 Appendix: What the Block Universe Theory is Not 18

2.5 Appendix: Other Versions of Reductionism about Tense 19

3 What Might Robust Passage Be? 22

3.1 Passage and "Real Change" 22

3.2 Presentism 27

3.3 Passage and Presentism 32

3.4 Two Metaphors for Passage 36

3.5 Appendix: More on Passage and Presentism 38

4 The Moving Spotlight 44

4.1 Can Time Itself Move or Flow? 44

4.2 The Moving Spotlight via Supertense 49

4.3 The Moving Spotlight via Temporal Perspectives 58

4.4 Appendix: MST-Time with Absolute Presentness 68

4.5 Appendix: A-IST-Time and Semantic Relativism 68

5 Growing Blocks and Branching Times 70

5.1 Two More Theories of Robust Passage 70

5.2 The Open Future 72

5.3 Appendix: A Remark on the Structure of Theories of Time 81

6 The Moving Spotlight Theory is Consistent 82

6.1 The Nuclear Option 82

6.2 McTaggart 83

6.3 McTaggart Redux: Smith 88

6.4 McTaggart Redux: Mellor 90

6.5 McTaggart Redux: Van Cleve 95

7 How Fast Does Time Pass? 101

7.1 An Unanswerable Question? 101

7.2 Changes without Rates of Change 103

7.3 Seconds and Superseconds 109

7.4 Arguments from Dimensional Analysis 114

7.5 Odds and Ends 127

8 The Challenge from Relativity 130

8.1 Time in Minkowski Spacetime 130

8.2 Preview 140

8.3 Inconsistency 141

9 Relativity and the Passage of Time 144

9.1 Neo-classical Spotlight Theories, I 144

9.2 Further Notes on Type-N Theories 149

9.3 Neo-classical Spotlight Theories, II 157

9.4 Superspacetime Theories 160

9.5 Beyond Special Relativity 171

9.6 Appendix: Spatially Extended Presents without Underdetermination 174

9.7 Appendix: Relativity and the Block Universe 175

10 Can We Move through Time? 178

10.1 Making Sense of the Idea 178

10.2 Moving through Time and Persisting through Time 181

10.3 Evaluating the Theory 186

11 Passage and Experience, I 188

11.1 Arguing for Robust Passage 188

11.2 The Argument from the Content of Experience, I 188

11.3 The Argument from the Content of Experience, II 199

11.4 The Argument from the Phenomenal Character of Experience 201

12 Passage and Experience, II 207

12.1 The Argument from the Presented Experience 207

12.2 Spotlight vs. Spotlight 213

12.3 Accepting Availability 216

12.4 Evaluating the Options 221

12.5 Appendix: Availability without the Stage Theory? 224

12.6 Appendix: Thank Goodness That's Over 225

13 Concluding Thoughts: Passage and Time-biased Preferences 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780198713272

0198713274

OCLC:

892895261