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AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF TIME GEMMA HRYCYK

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AN INTRODUCTION

TO THE PHILOSOPHY OF

TIME Gemma Hrycyk

AN

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

PHILOSOPHY OF

TIME GEMMA HRYCYK

GEMMA HRYCYK

AN

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

PHILOSOPHY OF

TIME

IS THE MOST TIME

ARISTOTLE (384 BC – 322 BC)

UNKNOWN OF ALL

UNKNOWN THINGS

Key words to know

Realists - People

who accept the

world as it literally is.

Realists look solely

at facts about the

world rather than

wishes and thoughts

about it.

Objective – Views

which are not

influenced by

personal feelings or

opinions e.g. facts

The Philosophy of Time

The philosophy of time is a captivating topic which summarizes the ongoing debates

between philosophers who attempt to define what time is. The best starting point to most

philosophical challenges is to find out and define what the word means, in this case “time”

itself. In this booklet, the key theories explained show how the challenge in defining time.

The dictionary defines the everyday use of the word “time” as the “indefinite progress of

the existence of events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.”1 This

definition is the most accepted view of what the ordinary meaning of time is. However

philosophers attempt to challenge the average view, revealing how time is not as simple

as the dictionary definition is. In this booklet you will discover the two most diverse

approaches to time; Eternalism and Presentism as well as learning about McTaggart the

most famous philosopher to challenge our perception of what time is. From these

contrasting views, the way you think about what time really is may change.

McTaggart’s Theories on Time

This section on McTaggart and his theories are directly edited,

paraphrased and quoted from an online video. 2

John Ellis McTaggart (1866-1925) was an English philosopher who

is most famously associated with his theory of time. He wrote in

1900 a 2,000 page book called “The Nature of Existence”. The book

describes how he does not believe in the concept of time at all.

‘However, he explained that if individuals are going to try to make

sense of the notion of time and are going to defend it as an objective

feature of our world, there are two beliefs about time which must be

understood.’ He illustrates these views through two theories. ‘Both

theories state that time is a way of events to be logically ordered.

Realists also agree that time is a way of ordering; however

philosophers views conflict over what that order consists of.’ The two most famous

theories that McTaggart constructed are called the A theory and the B theory.

About John Ellis McTaggart

McTaggart was an English Philosopher who was born on the 3rd

of September 1866. From a young age he was interested in

questioning the ideas of others. He became an atheist and

challenged the concept of God. As he grew into his adult years,

he became interested in the world of metaphysics. His passion

for challenging basic assumptions about the world and human

existence resulted in him writing his first book in 1900 called

“The Nature of Existence”. He wrote other books later on such

as “The Unreality of Time” which he became famously known for.

He died on 18th of January 1925 due to a circulatory disease.1

Key words to

know

Relative – Views

which are not set

in stone due to

ideas being

subjective

interpretations.

McTaggart’s A Theory

‘The A theory of time is also referred to as the “tensed theory of time”.

A theorists believe that the nature of time is that events are ordered

into the past, the present or the future.’ For example, Halloween 2018

is in the future, but when we get to the year of 2018 it will be in the

present, and then once it is over, Halloween 2018 will be in the past. “It

is an objective fact according to this theory that some events in the

future have not yet happened, but will happen soon. Other events are in

the present, the “objective now”, just as other events have been in the

present and now are in the past.” Therefore the A theorist believes that

the past, the present and the future are ‘not relative but are an

objective fact about the universe meaning that some events are now in its past and some

events are in its future. ‘

“The division of events into past, present and future constitute

a series which McTaggart coined the “A series”. According to

the A series the order of which time consists in is the ordering

of events in the past, present and future.” This concludes

McTaggart’s first theory.

McTaggart's B Theory

McTaggart also writes about the second view of time

called the B theory, also referred to as the “de-tensed

theory of time”. According to B theorists, time exists as

an objective fact that some events are earlier than

others, some events are later than others, and other

events are simultaneous with one another.3 ‘B theorists

believe there is no objective now which moves along,

the B theorist will admit there are some events which

are past compared to other events and other events are

future compared to another event, but they do not

believe that there I such concepts as the objective past

or objective future. B theorists think of time as a static

line with events all spread out equally along it.’ The line

is similar to a timeline record of historical events. “B

theorists believe that the division of events earlier, later

and simultaneous constitute a series called the B

series.”

Key words to

know

Dynamic

language – An

object being

described as

having some sort

of movement

property e.g.

“Flow”, “Time

passes”

Temporal Idioms –

the use of an

unusual set of

words to describe

something. In this

context the

feeling of time;

“Time flowing”

“Time passing”

What is the difference?

What is the difference between McTaggart’s A series and B series? What is the difference

between separating events into the past, present and future and describing events as

later as and earlier than one another? The difference is that an event can change its

position in the A series but events in the B series don’t change their position as they are

simply described as either earlier in relation to other events or later in relation to other

events.

‘For example if today someone asked you about the tense in

which Christmas in 2013 is described, you would say that it

is now in the past. However Christmas in 2013 was once in

the present and before it was in the present it was in the

future. People living in 2012 who asked the same question

would have said that “Christmas 2013 is in the future”.’

Evidently in this example it shows how an event is able to

change its position in what tense the event fits into. ‘This

would be the same for Christmas in 2090 today, it exists in

our concept of the future but someday it will be in the

present, and after Christmas in 2090 is over it will be in the

past. Events are constantly moving from future into the

present and into the past in the A series. It is in this way that

the A theorist describes time as “flowing” and how time

“passes”. It is a very common way of thinking about time.’

Many people often ascribe dynamic

language to explain time. If you were

to describe how time “feels” it could

be said that time “flies when you are

having fun”. ‘Dynamic language

suggests a type of movement.

Aristotle believed the world “has a

basic temporal structure”4 and he

believed that this language when

describing time, albeit metaphorical,

suggests that if time could literally fly,

at what rate would it flow at? Many

Philosophers have been curious to

find out if anything can be the literal

content into our temporal idioms like

“time flows” or “time passes”.’

The A theorist believes that when

people say “time flows” they are

describing how events can flow from

tense to tense seamlessly. In other words, events move continuously

from tense to tense as a “flowing movement”.

This is however different to the B theorists

view who believe that events are either

earlier or later when compared with one

another. B theorists do not believe in tenses

for events. ‘Therefore Christmas 2013 and

Christmas in 2090 cannot be described

respectively as being in the past or in the

future but rather describing that the event of

Christmas 2013 sits earlier on a timeline

compared to Christmas 2015 and a lot earlier

compared to Christmas 2090. Therefore for

the B theorists the event simply sits either

later or earlier compared to other events.

None of these relations change the position of

the event as Christmas 2013 will always be

earlier compared to Christmas in 2090 – this

will never change no matter how much time

“passes”.’

‘The B series is describes a “static form of events that is put into a certain order”; events

can never alter or change in this series, whereas they can in the A series – this explains

why being in the B series is very different to the A series.’

The Unreality of Time

This section on McTaggart and his theories are directly edited, paraphrased and quoted

from the second online video.5

Even though McTaggart was the creator of both the A theory and the B theory, his

conclusion, surprisingly, was that time cannot exist at all. He expresses this argument in

his most famous book “The Unreality of Time” written in 1908 and explains that ‘both

series are incoherent and are not accurate explanations of the nature of time. He argues

ultimately that if time cannot be explained by either the A series or the B series then time

cannot exist at all.’ Here is the basic overview of his argument.6

Key words

to know

Tenselessly

– The idea

that an

event will

happen in a

tense. E.g.

the past.

1. “If time is real then either the A series or the B series accurately describes

time as we know it.”

2. But if the B theory is true, no event can ever change, and there can be no

change.

a. “If the B theory accurately represents time then no fact about any

object can change” (as the event is static and cannot move from

future to present to past.)

b. “If no fact about any object can change, nothing can ever change.”

“If the death of Queen Anne occurs in 1714, then it (tenselessy)

always occurs in 1714.”1

c. “So if the B series is accurate then nothing can change” and

everything is static.

3. “If nothing ever really changes, time cannot be real”, McTaggart believed

change must “genuine change if time is real.

4. So if B theory is true, time is not real.

5. But if the A theory is true a contradiction follows:

a. The properties of being present, being past, and being future, are

incompatible, nothing can have all three.

b. However, suppose event X is present. This means event X was future

and will be past.

c. The properties of being past, being present, and being future are all

ascribed to X.

d. But now we have a contradiction, no event can be past, present and

future but X is!

6. ‘This contradiction cannot be true if the A theory works.

7. But the contradiction is valid.’

8. “So the A theory cannot be true.

9. So neither the A theory or the B theory can accurately describe time.

10. Therefore time is not real!”

McTaggart’s Argument against the theory of time

Key words to

know

Regress –

When a step in

a theory stunts

the theory

from

progressing.

This could be

to a

contradiction

in the theory.

He concluded that if we begin thinking time flows, and events move from future to present

to past (A series) then when we are asked to describe when they happen in relation to one

another we have to ascribe a position to where they happened and therefore we begin to

use B series. If we describe the event as happening earlier or later in relation to another

event we are putting them into a fixed time line order.

Therefore, we lose the whole concept of events moving in time and being

able to change and we end up with a static line of events. McTaggart

believes that because of this, the notion of time is destroyed as he believes

if the dynamic features cannot be understood and if we try to understand

any movement of time it only ends with a regress. He closes his argument

by saying therefore time cannot exist at all. Ultimately McTaggart’s

“argument is designed principally to show that the notion of the A- series

gives rise to a contradiction and the B-series cannot give us time” due to it

being static. Therefore it is up to you to agree with McTaggart’s

conclusion that time does not exist, or to take from it that issues in this

argument need to be resolved “before you can arrive at a correct

understanding of the nature of time.”7

The Presentist and the Eternalist

Two of the most diverse ways of digesting the meaning of time is through the views of

Presentism and Eternalism. They sit at either side of a spectrum when it comes to time.

Presentism

“Presentism is the doctrine that only the present is real.”8 The Presentist believes nothing

exists unless it is in the present. Therefore if an individual made a list of all the objects

which were in this present moment, the conclusion would be that all the objects exist. But

things such as Hitler or Dinosaurs wouldn’t exist as they lie in the past. The Presentist

rejects the existence of the other tenses (past and future). However, saying these things

don’t exist cause some to argue that they have once existed and therefore do exist in past

memory form. The response from the Presentist is that, it is incompatible to say

something did exist as it is relying on the past tense which they don’t believe exists. If the

object does not exist in the present tense it does not exist at all.

Arthur Prior (1914-1969) is a philosopher who agrees with

presentism. His argument looks into how using the word

“present” as a property to describe an existing event does not

add any new information to it. For example, “saying “I am present

in this room, adds no new information to this statement, since all

things which exist are present.”9 His conclusion is that if the

property “present” adds nothing to things which exist, it proves

that only what exists can exist presently.

Key words to

know

Intuitive – When

individuals use

their instinctive

consciousness.

Intuition does

not include

education or

knowledge

taught to an

individual

Instantaneous –

For something

to instantly be

completed.

Another philosopher who believes in presentism is St Augustine

(354-430 AD) who arrived at the “radical conclusion that past

and future exist only in the mind”.10 He suggests, only the

present is real, the other tenses are a real illusion.

Buddhism encourages individuals to focus on the present.

Fyodor Scherbatskoy wrote: “Everything past is unreal,

everything future is unreal, everything imagined, absent,

mental…is unreal…ultimately real is the only present

moment…”11

However, many issues arise from saying only the present exists. One

of the most famous arguments against presentism is called the

Grounding Objection argument. To make this argument we have to

first assume two things, both of which are intuitive. Firstly we must

assume we can make true statements about the past and the future.

For instance “the fire of London was in 1666” – this statement is true.

Secondly, we have to assume the truth depends on what exists such as

“Dandelions are yellow” because there exists something called a

Dandelion which has the property of being yellow. This statement is

much like saying “There are no flying pigs” both of which we know are

true. This is known as when “truth supervenes on existence”.

Presentism seems to be incompatible with both these assumptions

because if the past and future do not exist then we cannot make true

statements about them at all. We could not say that dandelions were

yellow unless we have seen a dandelion in the past being yellow.

Saying last year’s dandelions were yellow is no truer than saying all

pigs could fly last summer if we take a Presentist approach. Without

any idea of the past and future it is difficult to grasp any sort of rational

present thought. This is a huge flaw in the presentist’s view of time.

The present is a moment in time which must be so small that is it instantaneous. The

present cannot be extended because if it had any length, the property of 'pastness’ and

'futureness' could be applied which is incompatible to presentism as it would mean the

earlier part would be the future and the later part of the length would be past, which

cannot happen in a presentists view. Therefore, everything must exist all at the same time.

Everything must exist simultaneously because there is no other time that anything could

exist.

Key words to know

Special Relativity - A

theory created by

Albert Einstein, that

all motion must be

defined relative to

where an individual

views the motion

from and that space

and time are

relative, rather than

absolute concepts.

The problem with this is that for many thinkers, special

relativity tells us that there is no such thing as

simultaneity. Special relativity is basically a theory

created by Albert Einstein (1879-1955) which explains

how the speed at which we move determines the feeling

of the speed of time. Presentism is completely

incompatible with special relativity and many

philosophers would argue against presentism. If events

had to happen all at the same time all in the present

moment, an individual would be incorrect to describe

the length of time, as there would be no such thing as

time having any length.

This is developed further through special

relativity as time relies on how the individual

views it. For instance a car speeding past a

cyclist would view time as going fast, as they

travel at 40 mph, whereas the slow cyclist

would view the time period of the car

approaching and passing much slower as

they are only travelling at 10 mph.

Eternalism

In contrast to presentism, another theory of what time is that of Eternalism. Eternalists

believe that all tenses exist equally. In other words, the past, the present and the future all

exist as equal sections of time. They believe “that there are events existent at other times

that are equally real.”12

For example the Eternalist would believe that

dinosaurs exist because they exist in the past, that we

exist now, reading this very line, and exist in the

present, and that a holiday in space is something

which exists in the future tense. These three events

are all accepted to exist equally with each another.

With the Eternalist assumption comes some flaws. We all

know dinosaurs did once exist, and they exist in the past,

however saying they exist in the past is also suggesting they

don’t exist now. Therefore, the Eternalist view becomes very

muddled when it attempts to explain how the tenses can exist

even though they cannot physically ever exist unless they are

in the present, which is incompatible if they have admitted

that the tenses do exist. The Presentist would argue that if

we cannot prove that an object in the past exists due to it no

longer existing in the present then we have to assume it

doesn’t exist as all.

The Eternalist has many similarities to McTaggart’s B-series

as they believe “the world is static in two senses: events that

exist do not change, and there is no sense in which the

present moves.”13For example the event of Kennedy being shot is later than the

Dinosaurs. Therefore to say dinosaurs exist in the past is just as accurate as saying

robots will exist in the future.

The issue which comes from believing all the tenses are

equal is that most people believe that the present holds

more value. You cannot relive the past, you cannot

experiences the future until it is in the present – therefore

many people and specifically presentists would argue

that the present is the only real tense, as any other tense

cannot be experienced, and if it cannot be experienced, it

cannot be proved as being real.

The diverse theories presented in this booklet challenge

the existence of the tenses and how they are then

ordered to create the notion of time. All the theories

outlined in this booklet have obvious flaws. The issues the

theories face illustrate how complex time truly is. It is

evident that the definition of time is not as simple as you

may have at first thought.

This booklet has shown you the most diverse approaches to the philosophy of time. If you

are interested in exploring further into the philosophy of time, here are some topics worth

researching:

The moving spotlight theory14

The growing block theory15

The religious view of time16

17

What do you think time is? How would

you explain what the notion of time was

and how it operated?

Many philosophers have spent years

challenging the everyday concept of

time, and from their studies they have

constructed complex ideas of what time

is in their opinion.

In this booklet, you will discover how the

concept of time is not as simple as the

dictionary definition. From the most

opposite views within the philosophy of

time you will become aware of how

puzzling the notion of time truly is.

Bibliography

1 Oxford University Press, (1982) The Concise Oxford dictionary, 7th edn., New York, United States: Oxford University Press. 2 YouTube, (2016). McTaggart on Time (Part 1/2). [online] Available at: http://bit.ly/1Sa3ixh [Accessed 23 Jan. 2016]. 3 Geach, P. T.(1979) ‘Truth, Love, and Immortality’, Berkeley: University of California Press.pp 89.

4 Whitrow, G. (1961) ‘The Natural Philosophy of Time’. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, pp.1-3 5 YouTube, (2016). McTaggart on Time (Part 2/2). [online] Available at: http://bit.ly/1Pkgb1A [Accessed 23 Jan. 2016]. 6 Glendinning, S. (1999) 'W.J Mander', The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia of Continental Philosophy, (1579581528, 9781579581527), pp. 96-98 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1PpAlxi (Accessed: 2nd November 2015). 7 Schlesinger, N.G. (1980) 'McTaggart and his Commentators on the unreality of Time',Aspects of Time, (), pp. 41-42 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1nFOycY (Accessed: 19th November 2015). 8 Leininger, J.L. (2007) 'A Defense of Classical Eternalism', The Special Theory of Relativity and the Problem of Temporary Intrinsics, (), pp. 8 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1nfF6fS (Accessed: 14th October 2015). 9 Woolfe, S., (2013) Presentism and Eternalism: Two Philosophical Theories about Time, Available at: http://bit.ly/1SaWzBP (Accessed: 2015). 10 Poidevin, L.R. (2011) 'The Experience and Perception of Time', Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Fall Volume(1095-5054), pp. 3-5. 11 Woolfe, S., (2013) Presentism and Eternalism: Two Philosophical Theories about Time, Available at: http://bit.ly/1SaWzBP (Accessed: 21st November 2015). 12 Harold W.N. (2013) 'Presentism and Eternalism', Erkenntnis, 78(1), pp. 1 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1nFOHgF (Accessed: 1st September 2015). 13 Miller, K (2013) 'Presentism, Eternalism and the Growing Block', A Companion to the Philosophy of Time, (), pp. 347 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1QkLLzs (Accessed: 2nd July 2015). 14 Skow, B. (2009). Relativity and the Moving Spotlight. Journal of Philosophy, 106(12), pp.666-678. 15 Sider, T. (2016). The Growing Block. [online] www.tedsider.org. Available at: http://bit.ly/1PL6gCt [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016]. 16 Helm, P. (2006). Eternity. [online] Plato.stanford.edu. Available at: http://stanford.io/1WDOxCf [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016]. 17 Buckingham, W. (2011). The philosophy book. London: DK Pub.