ABSTRACT

The last century has seen enormous progress in our understanding of time. This volume features original essays by the foremost philosophers of time discussing the goals and methodology of the philosophy of time, and examining the best way to move forward with regard to the field's core issues.

The collection is unique in combining cutting edge work on time with a focus on the big picture of time studies as a discipline. The major questions asked include:

  • What are the implications of relativity and quantum physics on our understanding of time?
  • Is the passage of time real, or just a subjective phenomenon?
  • Are the past and future real, or is the present all that exists?
  • If the future is real and unchanging (as contemporary physics seems to suggest), how is free will possible?
  • Since only the present moment is perceived, how does the experience as we know it come about? How does experience take on its character of a continuous flow of moments or events?
  • What explains the apparent one-way direction of time?
  • Is time travel a logical/metaphysical possibility?

chapter 1|24 pages

A-, B-, and R-Theories of Time

A Debate

chapter 2|16 pages

Against Presentism

Two Very Different Types of Objection

chapter 3|15 pages

Times as Abstractions

chapter 4|17 pages

Perceiving Transience

chapter 5|26 pages

Time's Ontic Voltage

chapter 6|24 pages

Temporal Experience 1

chapter 7|26 pages

Time and Temporal Experience

chapter 8|20 pages

Decision and the Open Future

chapter 10|29 pages

Time and the Geometry of the Universe