Savitt, Steven (2011) How Fast Time Passes. [Preprint]
Abstract
Many have argued that it is not possible for time to pass because it is impossible to specify meaningfully a rate at which it passes. The natural suggestion, one second per second, is not a rate (it is argued) because (a) it collapses into a pure number when the dimensions cancel or (b) because there is no other possible alternative rate. After reviewing some of the main arguments for (a) and (b) and finding them inconclusive. I show that in Minkowski spacetime it is possible to specify a variable rate for the passing of proper time in terms of coordinate time, and also vice versa. Therefore, even if a no-rate-of-passage argument succeeds pre-relativistically, it fails in special relativity. One might think that my argument could be parodied to produce a rate of passage for space. Interestingly, that’s not so.
Actions (login required)
![[img]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)
![[feed]](http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/style/images/feed-icon-32x32.png){kind=icon}