Predicate-term negation and the indeterminacy of the future

Abstract

This essay introduces a formal structure to model the indeterminacy of the future in Einstein-Minkowski space-time. We consider a first-order language, supplemented with an operator for predicate-term negation, and defend the claim that such an operation provides an appropriate model for the indeterminacy of future contingents. In the final section, it is proved that given a language otherwise adequate to represent a physical theory, at least some of the predicates of that language are indeterminate when the future is not causally determined by the present and the past.

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References found in this work

The direction of time.Hans Reichenbach - 1956 - Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications. Edited by Maria Reichenbach.
The Direction of Time.Hans Reichenbach - 1956 - Philosophy 34 (128):65-66.
Worlds, times, and selves.A. N. Prior - 1977 - London: Duckworth. Edited by Kit Fine.
Branching space-time.Nuel Belnap - 1992 - Synthese 92 (3):385 - 434.

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