Philosophy Research Seminar: The C Theory of Time presented by Dr Matt Farr, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Event Details
- Date:
- Friday, 25 September 2015
- Time:
- 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
- Room:
- Room E302 Forgan Smith Building
- UQ Location:
- Forgan Smith Building (St Lucia)
- Event category(s):
Event Contact
- Name:
- Serena Bagley
- Phone:
- 3365 2795
- Email:
- s.bagley@uq.edu.au
- Org. Unit:
- Historical and Philosophical Inquiry
Event Description
- Full Description:
- JME McTaggart (1908) (in)famously argued against the reality of time, primarily on the basis that the concept of temporal passage is incoherent. Though it is not much discussed, in light of his rejection of both the ‘A series’ (an ordering of events in terms of pastness/presentness/futurity) and ‘B series’ (an ordering of events in terms of earlier/later), McTaggart nonetheless accepted the reality of his third series, the ‘C series’ (an undirected ordering of events). Unlike the former two, the C series was considered by McTaggart to be non-temporal, and so the reality of the series was not sufficient to save time from its ‘unreality’. Much subsequent focus fell on McTaggart’s attacks on the A and B series: A theorists contend, contrary to McTaggart, that the A series is not contradictory; B theorists hold that the B series is sufficient for genuine change and so also for ‘real’ time. No such time-saving enterprise has been undertaken on behalf of the C series, and as such there is no C theory of time. This is odd since there is nothing crucial in the account of change given in terms of the B series that the C series cannot provide - the C series simply does without a direction of time. I show the historical focus on a B theory (rather than C theory) of time is a mistake. I argue in favour of a C theory of time by arguing for the irrelevance of ‘time directed facts’ (B-facts) in the explanation of apparently time-directed phenomena.
Directions to UQ
- Google Map:
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- Directions:
- St Lucia Campus | Gatton campus.
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