Craig Callender

Ralph Edney

This title is now available in a new format. Refer to Time: A Graphic Guide 9781848311206.

Introducing Time

What is time? The 5th-century philosopher St Augustine famously said that he knew what time was, so long as no one asked him. Is time a fourth dimension similar to space or does it flow in some sense? And if it flows, does it make sense to say how fast? Does the future exist? Is time travel possible? Why does time seem to pass in only one direction?These questions and others are among the deepest and most subtle that one can ask, but Introducing Time" presents them - many for the first time - in an easily accessible, lucid and engaging manner, wittily illustrated by Ralph Edney."

This is the first comprehensive book on the philosophy of time. Leading philosophers discuss the metaphysics of time, our experience and representation of time, the role of time in ethics and action, and philosophical issues in the sciences of time, especially quantum mechanics and relativity theory.

The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time

As we navigate through life we instinctively model time as having a flowing present that divides a fixed past from open future. This model develops in childhood and is deeply saturated within our language, thought and behavior, affecting our conceptions of the universe, freedom and the self. Yet as central as it is to our lives, physics seems to have no room for this flowing present. This book demonstrates this claim in detail and then turns to two novel positive tasks. First, by looking at the world in the spatial directions it shows that physics is not 'spatializing time' as is commonly alleged. Second, if the flowing present is an illusion, it is a deep one worthy of explanation. The author develops a picture whereby the temporal flow arises as an interaction effect between an observer and the physics of the world. Using insights from philosophy, cognitive science, biology, psychology and physics, the theory claims that the flowing present model of time is the natural reaction to the perceptual and evolutionary challenges thrown at us. Modeling time as flowing makes sense even if it misrepresents it.

What Makes Time Special?

Nick Huggett

Was the first book to examine the exciting area of overlap between philosophy and quantum mechanics with chapters by leading experts from around the world.

Craig Callender

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