The fate of presentism in modern physics
@article{Wuthrich2012TheFO, title={The fate of presentism in modern physics}, author={Christian Wuthrich}, journal={arXiv: History and Philosophy of Physics}, year={2012} }
There has been a recent spate of essays defending presentism, the view in the metaphysics of time according to which all and only present events or entities exist. What is particularly striking about this resurgence is that it takes place on the background of the significant pressure exerted on the position by the relativity of simultaneity asserted in special relativity, and yet in several cases invokes modern physics for support. I classify the presentist replies to this pressure into a two…
37 Citations
About a Causal Theory of Time
- Philosophy
- 2013
In this article I try to once again endorse absolute time into the Philosophy of Physics. The way I endorse absolute time is quite natural and as far as I know is new in debate (c.f. 1CThe fate of…
Quantum Physics and Presentism
- Philosophy
- 2015
This paper argues that the case of presentism is open both from the physical and the metaphysical point of view. It is open from the physical point of view, since we do not have an elaborate account…
Getting tense about relativity
- PhilosophySynth.
- 2021
It is argued that, even setting aside issues, objective tense stands and falls in relativity for exactly the same reasons that it does in classical philosophical discussions on the matter.
Getting tense about relativity
- PhilosophySynthese
- 2020
Special relativity has been understood by many as vindicating a tenseless conception of time, denying the existence of tensed facts and a fortiori objective temporal passage. The reason for this is…
Trouble on the Horizon for Presentism
- PhilosophyPhilosophers' Imprint
- 2022
Surface presentism is the combination of a general relativistic physics with a presentist metaphysics. In this paper, we provide an argument against this combination based on black holes. The problem…
XVI—Relativity, the Open Future, and the Passage of Time
- Philosophy
- 2013
Is the objective passage of time compatible with relativistic physics? There are two easy routes to an affirmative answer: (1) provide a deflationary analysis of passage compatible with the block…
Absolute Simultaneity and the Principle of Stable Causality
- Philosophy, Physics
- 2012
Einsteins relativity of simultaneity had a deep impact on the pilosophy of time. A first conclusion is that there is no such thing as absolute time.
Furthermore according to relativity of…
Metaphysics of Science as Naturalized Metaphysics
- Philosophy, PhysicsThe Philosophy of Science
- 2018
This chapter outlines a metaphysics of science in the sense of a naturalized metaphysics. It considers in the first place the interplay of physics and metaphysics in Newtonian mechanics, then goes…
Presentism and Causal Processes
- Philosophy
- 2018
Presentism is the view that only present temporal entities (tenselessly) exist. A widely-discussed problem for presentism concerns causation and, more specifically, the supposed cross-temporally…
Neo-Lorentzian relativity and the beginning of the universe
- PhilosophyEuropean Journal for Philosophy of Science
- 2021
Many physicists have thought that absolute time became otiose with the introduction of Special Relativity. William Lane Craig disagrees. Craig argues that although relativity is empirically adequate…
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 40 REFERENCES
No Presentism in Quantum Gravity
- Philosophy
- 2010
This essay offers a reaction to the recent resurgence of presentism in the philosophy of time. What is of particular interest in this renaissance is that a number of recent arguments supporting…
Presentism and Quantum Gravity
- Philosophy
- 2001
There is a philosophical tradition of arguing against presentism, the thesis that only presently existing things exist, on the basis of its incompatibility with fundamental physics. I grant that…
The Privileged Present: Defending an 'A-Theory' of Time
- Philosophy
- 2007
The following questions go to the heart of the deepest metaphysical disagreement about the nature of time: (1) Are there objective differences between what is past, present, and future? (2) Are…
On Relativity Theory and Openness of the Future
- PhilosophyPhilosophy of Science
- 1991
It has been repeatedly argued, most recently by Nicholas Maxwell, that the special theory of relativity is incompatible with the view that the future is in some degree undetermined; and Maxwell…
A Rigorous Proof of Determinism Derived from the Special Theory of Relativity
- PhysicsPhilosophy of Science
- 1966
A proof is given that there does not exist an event, that is not already in the past for some possible distant observer at the (our) moment that the latter is "now" for us. Such event is as "legally"…
Demarcating presentism
- Philosophy
- 2010
This paper argues that recent arguments to the effect that the debate between presentism and eternalism lacks any metaphysical substance ultimately fail, although important lessons can be gleaned…
In Defense of Presentism
- Philosophy
- 1979
L. Pearce Williams was so irate over Joseph Agassi's book on Michael Faraday and the section on Faraday in a book by William Berkson that he was moved to entitle his review "Should Philosophers Be…
The Future: An Essay on God, Temporality and Truth
- Philosophy
- 1991
hypothesised future cause will need to make to have happened something which has not happened. If Anglin and others are refusing to allow that that requirement is self-contradictory, then I am at a…
Mathematics, Matter and Method: Time and physical geometry
- Philosophy
- 1967
I think that if we attempted to set out the ‘man on the street's’ view of the nature of time, we would find that the main principle underlying his convictions on this subject might be stated somewhat…