A core topic in metaphysics, time is also central to issues in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mind and the philosophy of religion. Debates in the Metaphysics of Time explores these close philosophical connections and tackles the contemporary debates using an interactive approach.
Contributors put forward their views before commenting on the ideas of other contributors and defending against objections. Divided into 'metaphysics and time', 'consciousness and time' and 'God, time and human freedom', chapters are organized around key questions, including:
• How are we to understand the passage of time, or the 'change' an event seems to undergo when it moves from the future to the present and then recedes into the more and more distant past?
• Can we only be directly aware of what is momentary if we directly experience change and duration?
• How is God related to time and is divine foreknowledge and human freedom compatible?
For students and researchers looking to understand the latest arguments in the philosophy of time, Debates in the Metaphysics of Time provides an original, up-to-date and accessible account of past, present and future debates.
L. Nathan Oaklander is David M. French Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA. His books include The Philosophy of Time: Critical Concepts in Philosophy (2008) and The New Theory of Time (1994).
Editor’s Introduction
Part I: Metaphysics and Time
A. Is there a coherent debate in the Metaphysics of Time?
1. Dolev’s Anti-Metaphysical Realism: A Critique, L. Nathan Oaklander
2. Two Metaphysical Perspectives on the Duration of the Present, Francesco Orilia
3. Motion and Passage - The Old B-Theory and Phenomenology, Yuval Dolev
B. Temporal Succession, Temporal Becoming and the Analysis of Change
4. Erwin Tegtmeier: Temporal Succession and Tense
5. Becoming: Temporal, Absolute and Atemporal, M. Oreste Fiocco
6. Temporal Predicates and the Passage of Time, M. Joshua Mozersky
Part II Consciousness and Time
7. Physical Time, Phenomenal Time, and the Symmetry of Nature, Michael Pelczar
8. Extensionalism, Atomism and Continuity, Geoffrey Lee
9. The Extensional Analysis of Temporal Consciousness, Barry Dainton
Part III God, Time and Human Freedom
10. Divine Events, Joseph Diekemper
11. Instants, Events and God, Brian Leftow
12. Foreknowledge and Fatalism: Why Divine Timelessness Doesn’t Help, Alan R. Rhoda
13. Foreknowledge Dilemma: Response to Rhoda, Katherin A. Rogers
Index
Other versions by this Author