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  1. Finitism and the Beginning of the Universe.Stephen Puryear - 2014 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 92 (4):619-629.
    Many philosophers have argued that the past must be finite in duration because otherwise reaching the present moment would have involved something impossible, namely, the sequential occurrence of an actual infinity of events. In reply, some philosophers have objected that there can be nothing amiss in such an occurrence, since actually infinite sequences are ‘traversed’ all the time in nature, for example, whenever an object moves from one location in space to another. This essay focuses on one of the two (...)
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  • Polyphonic Music and Classical Physics: The Origin of Newtonian Time.Geza Szamosi - 1990 - History of Science 28 (2):175-191.
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  • Time's arrow in an oscillating universe.Allan Walstad - 1980 - Foundations of Physics 10 (9-10):743-749.
    In view of the time-symmetric nature of the laws of physics, time asymmetry in the universe must arise from “initial” conditions. A fully time-symmetric oscillating model is presented which exists in a highly compressed, highly ordered state att=0 and evolves forward, in the thermodynamic sense, as ∣t ∣ increases. This model offers the possibility of accounting for several fundamental and puzzling aspects of our universe, including matter-antimatter asymmetry, the large entropy per baryon, primordial density enhancements sufficient to form galaxies, and (...)
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  • Is Descartes a Temporal Atomist?Ken Levy - 2005 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 13 (4):627 – 674.
    I argue that Descartes' Second Causal Proof of God in the Third Meditation evidences, and commits him to, the belief that time is "strongly discontinuous" -- that is, that there is actually a gap between each consecutive moment of time. Much of my article attempts to reconcile this interpretation, the "received view," with Descartes' statements about time, space, and matter in his other writings, including his correspondence with various philosophers.
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  • The extent of the present.William Craig - 2000 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 14 (2):165 – 185.
    One of the principal objections to a tensed or dynamic theory of time is the ancient puzzle about the extent of the present. Three alternative conceptions of the extent of the present are considered: an instantaneous present, an atomic present, and a non-metrical present. The first conception is difficult to reconcile with the objectivity of temporal becoming posited by a dynamic theory of time. The second conception solves that problem, but only at the expense of making change discontinuous. The third (...)
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  • Past, present and future modally introduced.Tomasz Placek - 2019 - Synthese 198 (4):3603-3624.
    We investigate the concepts of past, present, and future that build upon a modal distinction between a settled past and an open future. The concepts are defined in terms of a pre-causal ordering that is determined by the qualitative differences between alternative possible histories. We look what an event’s past, present, and future look like in the so-called Minkowskian Branching Structures, one in which histories are isomorphic to Minkowski space-time.
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  • Relativity and Three Four‐dimensionalisms.Cody Gilmore, Damiano Costa & Claudio Calosi - 2016 - Philosophy Compass 11 (2):102-120.
    Relativity theory is often said to support something called ‘the four-dimensional view of reality’. But there are at least three different views that sometimes go by this name. One is ‘spacetime unitism’, according to which there is a spacetime manifold, and if there are such things as points of space or instants of time, these are just spacetime regions of different sorts: thus space and time are not separate manifolds. A second is the B-theory of time, according to which the (...)
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  • Finitism and Divisibility: A Reply to Puryear.Travis Dumsday - 2016 - Australasian Journal of Philosophy 94 (3):596-601.
    Puryear develops an objection against a prominent attempt to show that the universe must have a temporal beginning. Here I formulate a reply.
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  • The Past-Future Asymmetry.Friedel Weinert - unknown
    As the past-future asymmetry – that fact that we have records of the past but not the future – is still a puzzle the aim of this paper is twofold: a) to explain the asymmetry and its status in philosophy and physics and to critically review the proposed solutions to this puzzle; b) to advance a dynamic solution to the puzzle in terms of the ‘universality’ of the entropy relation in statistical mechanics.
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  • The definability of objective becoming in Minkowski spacetime.Rob Clifton & Mark Hogarth - 1995 - Synthese 103 (3):355 - 387.
    In his recent article On Relativity Theory and Openness of the Future (1991), Howard Stein proves not only that one can define an objective becoming relation in Minkowski spacetime, but that there is only one possible definition available if one accepts certain natural assumptions about what it is for becoming to occur and for it to be objective. Stein uses the definition supplied by his proof to refute an argument due to Rietdijk (1966, 1976), Putnam (1967) and Maxwell (1985, 1988) (...)
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  • On the quantum mechanics of consciousness, with application to anomalous phenomena.Robert G. Jahn & Brenda J. Dunne - 1986 - Foundations of Physics 16 (8):721-772.
    Theoretical explication of a growing body of empirical data on consciousness-related anomalous phenomena is unlikely to be achieved in terms of known physical processes. Rather, it will first be necessary to formulate the basic role of consciousness in the definition of reality before such anomalous experience can adequately be represented. This paper takes the position that reality is constituted only in the interaction of consciousness with its environment, and therefore that any scheme of conceptual organization developed to represent that reality (...)
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  • From time atoms to space-time quantization: the idea of discrete time, ca 1925–1936.Helge Kragh & Bruno Carazza - 1994 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 25 (3):437-462.
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  • Can an infinitude of operations be performed in a finite time?Adolf Grünbaum - 1969 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 20 (3):203-218.
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  • A discrete solution for the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise.Vincent Ardourel - 2015 - Synthese 192 (9):2843-2861.
    In this paper, I present a discrete solution for the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise. I argue that Achilles overtakes the tortoise after a finite number of steps of Zeno’s argument if time is represented as discrete. I then answer two objections that could be made against this solution. First, I argue that the discrete solution is not an ad hoc solution. It is embedded in a discrete formulation of classical mechanics. Second, I show that the discrete solution cannot (...)
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  • Reference, modality, and relational time.J. A. Cover - 1993 - Philosophical Studies 70 (3):251 - 277.
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  • On the alleged equivalence between Newtonian and relativistic cosmology.Pierre Kerszberg - 1987 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 38 (3):347-380.
    Among the many controversial contributions of E. A. Milne to cosmology, the only one which is taken seriously today (to the extent that it has been absorbed as a premise in most scientific approaches to the problem of the universe as a totality) is his early suggestion that a formal equivalence may be made between Newtonian and Relativistic cosmology. My own paper suggests that, over and above any logical validity in the alleged equivalence, the actual way in which it has (...)
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  • Can discrete time make continuous space look discrete?Claudio Mazzola - 2014 - European Journal for Philosophy of Science 4 (1):19-30.
    Van Bendegem has recently offered an argument to the effect that, if time is discrete, then there should exist a correspondence between the motions of massive bodies and a discrete geometry. On this basis, he concludes that, even if space is continuous, it should nonetheless appear discrete. This paper examines the two possible ways of making sense of that correspondence, and shows that in neither case van Bendegem’s conclusion logically follows.
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  • On constructing instants from events.S. K. Thomason - 1984 - Journal of Philosophical Logic 13 (1):85 - 96.
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  • On Time, Information and Life.O. Costa Beauregard - 1968 - Dialectica 22 (3-4):187-205.
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  • Two theories of time.Yunqing Lin - 1991 - Journal of Applied Non-Classical Logics 1 (1):37-63.
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  • Did time have a beginning?Henrik Zinkernagel - 2008 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 22 (3):237 – 258.
    By analyzing the meaning of time I argue, without endorsing operationalism, that time is necessarily related to physical systems which can serve as clocks. This leads to a version of relationism about time which entails that there is no time 'before' the universe. Three notions of metaphysical 'time' (associated, respectively, with time as a mathematical concept, substantivalism, and modal relationism) which might support the idea of time 'before' the universe are discussed. I argue that there are no good reasons to (...)
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  • The Relativity of Rotation in the Early Foundations of General Relativity.Pierre Kerszberg - 1987 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 18 (1):53.
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  • Climates of fear and socio-political change.J. M. Barbalet - 1995 - Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour 25 (1):15–33.
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  • Location and range.George N. Schlesinger - 1990 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 41 (2):245-260.
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  • Non-basic time and reductive strategies: Leibniz's theory of time.J. A. Cover - 1997 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 28 (2):289-318.
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  • The flow of time.P. J. Zwart - 1972 - Synthese 24 (1-2):133 - 158.
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  • Leibniz's non-tensed theory of time.Michael J. Futch - 2002 - International Studies in the Philosophy of Science 16 (2):125 – 139.
    Leibniz's philosophy of time, often seen as a precursor to current forms of relationalism and causal theories of time, has rightly earned the admiration of his more recent counterparts in the philosophy of science. In this article, I examine Leibniz's philosophy of time from a new perspective: the role that tense and non-tensed temporal properties/relations play in it. Specifically, I argue that Leibniz's philosophy of time is best (and non-anachronistically) construed as a non-tensed theory of time, one that dispenses with (...)
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  • A locus for “now”.Tomasz Placek - 2011 - In Dennis Dieks, Wenceslao Gonzalo, Thomas Uebel, Stephan Hartmann & Marcel Weber (eds.), Explanation, Prediction, and Confirmation. Springer. pp. 395--410.
    We investigate the concepts of past, present, and future that build upon a modal distinction between the settled past and the open future. The concepts are defined in terms of a pre-causal ordering and of qualitative differences between alternative histories. Finally, we look what an event's past, present, and future look like in the so-called Minkowskian Branching Structures, in which histories are isomorphic to Minkowski spacetime.
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  • On the two aspects of time: The distinction and its implications. [REVIEW]L. P. Horwitz, R. I. Arshansky & A. C. Elitzur - 1988 - Foundations of Physics 18 (12):1159-1193.
    The contemporary view of the fundamental role of time in physics generally ignores its most obvious characteric, namely its flow. Studies in the foundations of relativistic mechanics during the past decade have shown that the dynamical evolution of a system can be treated in a manifestly covariant way, in terms of the solution of a system of canonical Hamilton type equations, by considering the space-time coordinates and momenta ofevents as its fundamental description. The evolution of the events, as functions of (...)
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  • Time, quantum mechanics, and tense.Simon Saunders - 1996 - Synthese 107 (1):19 - 53.
    The relational approach to tense holds that the now, passage, and becoming are to be understood in terms of relations between events. The debate over the adequacy of this framework is illustrated by a comparative study of the sense in which physical theories, (in)deterministic and (non)relativistic, can lend expression to the metaphysics at issue. The objective is not to settle the matter, but to clarify the nature of this metaphysics and to establish that the same issues are at stake in (...)
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  • Becoming: A modest proposal. [REVIEW]James A. McGilvray - 1976 - Philosophical Studies 30 (3):161 - 170.
    In this paper I attempt a new approach to an old technical term: becoming. I show how the theory that becoming is coming-to-be could be supported by a semantic derivation of the nominalization becoming from its verbal counterpart, by investigating the properties of the present progressive constructions in which becoming as a verbal appears. My theory denies that dates, or qualitative change, play an essential role in the analysis of becoming.
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  • Philosophy of Space and Expanding Universe in G. J. Whitrow.Giovanni Macchia - 2015 - Foundations of Science 20 (3):233-247.
    One of the few authors to have explicitly connected the physical issue of the expansion of the universe with the philosophical topic of the metaphysical status of space is Gerald James Whitrow. This paper examines his view and tries to highlight its strong and weak points, thereby clarifying its obscure aspects. In general, this really interesting philosophical approach to one of the most important phenomena concerning our universe, and therefore modern cosmology, has been very rarely tackled. This unicity increases the (...)
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  • (1 other version)Reviews. [REVIEW]C. W. Kilmister - 1983 - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 34 (2):200-201.
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  • A Structural Model for Temporal Passage.Richard N. Burnor - 1994 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 32 (1):1-18.
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