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The Physics and Metaphysics of Time

Dieks, Dennis (2012) The Physics and Metaphysics of Time. [Preprint]

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Abstract

We review the current situation in the philosophy of time, partly to investigate Michael Dummett’s complaint that the philosophy of physics has become too specialized and technical to be able to communicate with mainstream philosophy. We conclude that the situation in this case is different: there is no special difficulty of intelligibility---the obstacle for communication between science and philosophy here is rather that what physics, or science in general, tells us is prima facie in conflict with common sense and intuition. We argue that this difficulty is indeed prima facie: on closer inspection it appears that the scientific B-theory may explain our intuition better than the A-theory, even though the latter at first sight seems to completely mirror our direct experience.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Dieks, Dennisd.dieks@uu.nl
Additional Information: To appear in a special "Dummett" issue of the European Journal of Analytic Philosophy
Keywords: Time, A-series, B-series, block universe, presentism
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User: Dennis Dieks
Date Deposited: 05 Sep 2012 19:57
Last Modified: 05 Sep 2012 19:57
Item ID: 9310
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Cosmology
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date: 5 September 2012
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/9310

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