Vacillating time: a metaphysics for time travel and Geachianism

Synthese 199 (3-4):7159-7180 (2021)
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Abstract

‘Past vacillators’ believe that what was once the case may change over time. This has obvious applications to the possibility of changing the past via time travel. ‘Future vacillators’ believe that some things will happen and yet, later, will not. Further to issues in time travel, future vacillation has applications when it comes to ‘Geachian’ views about the open future. This paper argues that if you deny that the ‘earlier than’ and ‘later than’ relations are converses of one another then you can develop metaphysical systems underpinning the possibility of such vacillation.

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Nikk Effingham
University of Birmingham

References found in this work

The question of realism.Kit Fine - 2001 - Philosophers' Imprint 1:1-30.
Objective Becoming.Bradford Skow - 2015 - Oxford: Oxford University Press UK.
A Defense of Presentism.Ned Markosian - 2004 - Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 1:47-82.
A future for presentism.Craig Bourne - 2006 - New York: Oxford University Press.
A Future for Presentism.Craig Bourne - 2006 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK.

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