Metaphysics > Time > Aspects of Time > Time Travel

Time Travel

Edited by Sam Baron (Australian Catholic University)
Assistant editor: B. C. Everett (University of Sydney)
About this topic
Summary

The philosophy of time travel involves investigation into the question of the physical, logical and metaphysical possibility of time travel. The topic centres on the fact that time travel scenarios seem physically possible, and yet many counterexamples have been put forward showing that it is not logically possible. The famous grandfather paradox asks whether it is possible for one to travel backwards in time to kill their own grandfather. The problem here is that, while it seems possible to engage in backwards time travel, it also seems impossible to change the past. Standard solutions to the paradox have interesting consequences for issues surrounding free will, as the thought goes that some event would always prevent a time traveller from doing the impossible and changing the past. However, without an explanation as to why a time traveller is prevented from performing certain actions this solution has been thought by some to be untenable. An alternative proposed solution, then, is that time is two-dimensional, and that it is possible to change the past on one of these temporal dimensions. Another, related, topic in the literature is that time travel involves backwards causation and, therefore, causal loops. There are two things at issue here. The first is the dispute between those who think that time travel entails causal loops and those who do not. And the second is the dispute between those who think that time travel does entail causal loops and that this is problematic and those who agree with the entailment but argue that it is not problematic. Additional issues in the time travel literature involve time travel and temporal ontology – i.e., whether or not the past, present and future are necessary for time travel – and time travel and identity over time – i.e., whether or not certain views of the persistence of objects rule out the possibility of the same object having two incompatible properties at the same time (due to a time-traveller encountering their younger self). 
Key works Classic works on the grandfather paradox are Lewis 1976 and Horwich 1975. Lewis's solution to the grandfather paradox is defended against Horwich 1987 by Smith 1997 and Dowe 2003. The relationship between the grandfather paradox and free will is discussed in Sider 2002 and Vihvelin 1996. Riggs 1997 argues against the solution to the paradox whereby the time traveller is prevented from performing certain actions is untenable, and Baron 2017 looks at the two-dimensional solution to the paradox. Bernstein 2017 discusses time travel and the movable present. A solution to Einstein's field equations that permits closed time-like curves is given in Gödel 1949. Closed time-like curves are discussed in Dowe 2007. The compatibility between dynamic theories of time and time travel is discussed in Monton 2003, Miller 2005, Miller 2006, Miller 2006, Dowe 2009 and Sider 2005. Miller 2021 looks at time travel and future-bias. 
Introductions

Luminet 2011, and Le Poidevin 2003 both offer good introductions to the topic. 
Related categories
Siblings:
Jobs in this area
Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies
Philosophy Professor - Tenured / Tenure-Track (Open Rank), Division of Arts and Humanities, NYU Abu Dhabi
Postdoctoral Researchers (ELSI / Neuroethics) – Polygenic Embryo Screening and Pediatric Deep Brain Stimulation studies
Jobs from PhilJobs

390 found
Order:
1 — 50 / 390
  1. Potentials of Future-Viewing Machines.Aaron M. Feeney - manuscript
    {June 2018 UPDATE: This work has been greatly surpassed by "Utilizing Future-Viewing Instruments" which will appear in the July 2018 issue of Progress in Physics. It can now be downloaded in PDF form from their website.} -/- The introduction of new scientific instruments has always played a vital role in the advancement of science and society. All scientific instruments to date have only been able to gain information pertaining to events of our immediate and distant past. Concerning our attempts to (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  2. Decision and Foreknowledge.J. Dmitri Gallow - manuscript
    My topic is how to make decisions when you possess foreknowledge of the consequences of your choice. Many have thought that these kinds of decisions pose a distinctive and novel problem for causal decision theory (CDT). My thesis is that foreknowledge poses no new problems for CDT. Some of the purported problems are not problems. Others are problems, but they are not problems for CDT. Rather, they are problems for our theories of subjunctive supposition. Others are problems, but they are (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  3. La causalité dans le voyage dans le temps.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Certains scientifiques et philosophes sont d’avis que toute théorie permettant un voyage dans le temps introduirait des problèmes de causalité. Ces types de paradoxes temporels peuvent être évités grâce au principe de cohérence de Novikov ou à une variation de l'interprétation des mondes multiples avec des mondes en interaction. L'argument classique contre la causalité rétrograde est l'argument du contournement. La causalité implique un avenir ontologiquement fermé - une position métaphysique sur le temps communément appelée l'éternalisme, une forme spécifique de non-présentisme. (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  4. Buclele cauzale în călătoria în timp.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    În această lucrare analizez posibilitatea călătoriei în timp pe baza mai multor lucrări de specialitate, printre care cele ale lui Nicholas J.J. Smith ("Time Travel", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy”), William Grey (”Troubles with Time Travel”), Ulrich Meyer (”Explaining causal loops”), Simon Keller și Michael Nelson (”Presentists should believe in time-travel”), Frank Arntzenius și Tim Maudlin ("Time Travel and Modern Physics") și David Lewis (“The Paradoxes of Time Travel”). Lucrarea începe cu o Introducere în care fac o scurtă prezentare a (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   15 citations  
  5. La philosophie du voyage dans le temps.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    L'éternalisme soutient que le passé et le futur existent réellement, en partant de l’idée que le temps est une dimension similaire aux dimensions spatiales, que les événements passés et futurs sont « présents » sur l’axe du temps, mais cette opinion est contestée. Dans la vision à quatre dimensions, l'univers est une topologie espace-temps existante, contenant tout ce qui s'est passé, tout ce qui se passe et tout ce qui va se passer. Il en résulte qu'il n'y a aucun moment (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  6. Causal Loops in Time Travel.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    About the possibility of time traveling based on several specialized works, including those of Nicholas J. J. Smith ("Time Travel"), William Grey (”Troubles with Time Travel”), Ulrich Meyer (”Explaining causal loops”), Simon Keller and Michael Nelson (”Presentists should believe in time-travel”), Frank Arntzenius and Tim Maudlin ("Time Travel and Modern Physics"), and David Lewis (“The Paradoxes of Time Travel”). The article begins with an Introduction in which I make a short presentation of the time travel, and continues with a History (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  7. Paradoxuri cauzale în călătoria în timp.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Orice teorie care ar permite călătoria în timp ar introduce probleme de cauzalitate. Aceste tipuri de paradoxuri temporale pot fi evitate prin principiul de consecvență Novikov sau printr-o variație a interpretării multor lumi cu lumi care interacționează. Argumentul clasic împotriva cauzalității înapoi este argumentul bilking, Dacă un eveniment A provoacă un eveniment anterior B, bilking recomandă o încercare de a decorela A și B, adică de a aduce A în cazurile în care B nu a avut loc și de a (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  8. Călătoria în timp.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Călătoria în timp implică deplasarea într-un timp diferit de cel prezent, în trecut sau în viitor, în principiu fără o deplasare în spațiu cu referire la un sistem de coordonate local. Călătoria în timp poate fi făcută de un corp material care poate fi sau nu o ființă vie, și pentru care se folosește de obicei un dispozitiv special denumit mașina timpului. Călătoria în timp este un concept recunoscut în filosofie și știință, dar a cărui posibilitatea este foarte disputată, dând (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  9. Paradoxe du grand-père.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    L'exemple le plus connu de l'impossibilité de voyager dans le temps est le paradoxe du grand-père ou l'argument de l'auto-infanticide: une personne qui voyage dans le passé et tue son propre grand-père, empêchant ainsi l'existence d'un de ses parents et donc sa propre existence. Une réponse philosophique à ce paradoxe serait l'impossibilité de changer le passé, (à l'instar du principe de cohérence de Novikov. Le paradoxe du grand-père implique toute action qui change le passé. Il se présente sous de nombreuses (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  10. Space, Time, and Time Travel.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Newton supported the idea of absolute time, unlike Leibniz, for which time is only a relation between events and cannot be expressed independently, a statement in concordance with the relativity of space-time. Eternalism claims that the past and the future exist in a real sense, going to the idea that time is a dimension similar to spatial dimensions, that future and past events are "present" on the axis of time, but this view is challenged. On four-dimensional vision, the universe is (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  11. Filosofia călătoriei în timp – Paradoxul bunicului.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Newton a susținut ideea timpului absolut, spre deosebire de Leibniz pentru care timpul este doar o relație între evenimente și nu poate fi exprimat în mod independent, afirmație în concordanță ci relativitatea spațiu-timpului. Eternismul susține că trecutul și viitorul există într-un sens real, mergându-se până la ideea că timpul este o dimensiune similară cu dimensiunile spațiale, că evenimentele viitoare și trecute sunt "prezente" pe axa timpului, dar această opinie este contestată. Cel mai cunoscut exemplu de imposibilitate a călătoriei în timp (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  12. Time Travel.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Time travel is a recognized concept in philosophy and science, but whose scope is highly disputed, giving rise to numerous paradoxes in both philosophy and science. Time travel is considered by some accepted both in general relativity and quantum mechanics, but there is a unanimous consensus that it is not feasible with current technology. (Hawkins 2010) The raised issues are different for the time travel in the past compared to the time travel in the future.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  13. Grandfather Paradox in Time Travel.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    The most well-known example of the impossibility of traveling in time is the grandfather paradox or self-infanticide argument: a person who travels in the past and kills his own grandfather, thus preventing the existence of one of his parents and thus his own existence. A philosophical response to this paradox would be the impossibility of changing the past, like Novikov self-consistency principle (if an event exists that would cause a paradox or any "change" to the past whatsoever, then the probability (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  14. Boucles causales dans le voyage dans le temps.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    À propos de la possibilité de voyager dans le temps sur la base de plusieurs ouvrages spécialisés, notamment ceux de Nicholas J. J. Smith (« Time Travel »), William Grey (« Troubles with Time Travel »), Ulrich Meyer (« Explaining causal loops »), Simon Keller and Michael Nelson (« Presentists should believe in time-travel »), Frank Arntzenius and Tim Maudlin (« Time Travel and Modern Physics »), et David Lewis (« The Paradoxes of Time Travel »). L'article commence par une (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  15. Voyage dans le temps.Nicolae Sfetcu - manuscript
    Une autre définition du voyage dans le temps (Arntzenius 2006) (Smeenk and Wüthrich 2011) l'assimile à l'existence des courbes temporelles fermées, une variété lorentzienne d'une particule matérielle dans l'espace-temps qui revient à son point de départ. Certains auteurs acceptent l’existence de deux dimensions temporelles et d’autres envisagent des scénarios comportant plusieurs univers « parallèles », chacun ayant son propre espace-temps à quatre dimensions.Mais la question est de savoir si un voyage dans une autre dimension temporelle ou dans un autre univers (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  16. Back to the Future: Curing Past Sufferings and S-Risks Via Indexical Uncertainty.Alexey Turchin - manuscript
    The long unbearable sufferings in the past and agonies experienced in some future timelines in which a malevolent AI could torture people for some idiosyncratic reasons (s-risks) is a significant moral problem. Such events either already happened or will happen in causally disconnected regions of the multiverse and thus it seems unlikely that we can do anything about it. However, at least one pure theoretic way to cure past sufferings exists. If we assume that there is no stable substrate of (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  17. The Apparent Nature of Relative Simultaneity.Andrew Wutke - manuscript
    This paper presents the proof of the apparent nature of relative simultaneity originally derived from Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity (STR). The proof does not challenge the validity of the STR but uncovers fundamental and widespread error in understanding of practical implications of Lorentz transformations. It is demonstrated that more than a century long debates generally miss the point. This results in counterintuitive claims of coexisting multiple time realities by mere equivalence of equal clock indications and simultaneity. Such claims have (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  18. Self Visitation, Traveler Time and Non-Contradiction.John Carroll - manuscript
    The self-visitation paradox is one paradox of time travel. As Ted Sider puts it, “Suppose I travel back in time and stand in a room with my sitting 10-year-old self. I seem to be both sitting and standing, but how can that be?” (2001, 101). So as not to beg any questions, let us label what is sitting B and what is standing C. The worry is about how B can be C in light of the looming contradiction that this (...)
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  19. Context, Conditionals, Fatalism, Freedom & Time Travel.John Carroll - manuscript
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  20. A Trip Back in Time and Space.George Johnson - manuscript
    Science Times cover story, July 10, 2007.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  21. Paradoxes of Time Travel to the Future.Sara Bernstein - forthcoming - In Helen Beebee & Anthony Fisher (eds.), Perspectives on the Philosophy of David K. Lewis. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
    This paper brings two fresh perspectives on Lewis’s theory of time travel. First: many key aspects and theoretical desiderata of Lewis’s theory can be captured in a framework that does not commit to eternalism about time. Second: implementing aspects of Lewisian time travel in a non-eternalist framework provides theoretical resources for a better treatment of time travel to the future. While time travel to the past has been extensively analyzed, time travel to the future has been comparatively underexplored. I make (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  22. How Stable Is Objective Chance?John Cusbert - forthcoming - British Journal for the Philosophy of Science:axy069.
    This paper examines the stability of objective chance. I defend the stable chance thesis : that in any given possible world, any pair of intrinsic duplicate physical setups with the same chances of being subject to the same external influences must yield the same chances. I argue that SCT compares favourably to rivals in the literature. I then consider a challenge to SCT involving time travel and causal loops. I argue that SCT survives this challenge, but that such cases expose (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  23. The Metaphysical Possibility of Time Travel Fictions.Nikk Effingham - forthcoming - Erkenntnis:1-21.
    In some stories, time travellers cannot change the past. It is widely accepted that this is metaphysically possible. In some stories, time travellers can change the past. Many philosophers have explained how that, too, is metaphysically possible. This paper considers narratives where sometimes the past can change and sometimes it cannot, arguing that this is also something that is possible. Further, I argue that we can make sense of stories where some events appear to be ‘fixed points in time’.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  24. Against the Standard Solution to the Grandfather Paradox.Yael Loewenstein - forthcoming - Synthese.
    1000 time-travelers travel back in time, each with the intention of killing their own infant-self. If there is no branching time, then on pain of bringing about a logical contradiction, all must fail. But this seems inexplicable: what is to ensure that the time-travelers are stopped? For a time, this inexplicability objection was thought to provide evidence that there is something incoherent about the possibility of backwards time travel in a universe without branching time. There is now near-consensus, however, that (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  25. Time Travel and Coincidence-Free Local Dynamical Theories.Giuliano Torrengo - forthcoming - Synthese (11):4835-4846.
    I criticize Lockwood’s solution to the “paradoxes” of time travel, thus endorsing Lewis’s more conservative position. Lockwood argues that only in the context of a 5D space-time-actuality manifold is the possibility of time travel compatible with the Autonomy Principle. I argue that shifting from 4D space-time to 5D space-time-actuality does not change the situation with respect to the Autonomy Principle, since the shift does not allow us to have a coincidence-free local dynamical theory.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  26. The Future Ain’T What It Used to Be: Strengthening the Case for Mutable Futurism.Giacomo Andreoletti & Giuseppe Spolaore - 2021 - Synthese 199 (3-4):10569-10585.
    This paper explores mutable futurism, the view according to which the future can literally change—that is, it can happen that a future time t changes from containing an event E to lacking it. Mutable futurism has received little attention so far, and the details and implications of the view are underexplored in the literature. For instance, it currently lacks a precise metaphysical model and a formal semantics. Although we do not endorse mutable futurism, our goal here is to strengthen the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  27. Does Lewis’ Theory of Causation Permit Time Travel?Phil Dowe - 2021 - Philosophies 6 (94):94.
    David Lewis aimed to give an account of causation, and in particular, a semantics for the counterfactuals to which his account appeals, that is compatible with backwards causation and time travel. I will argue that he failed, but not for the reasons that have been offered to date, specifically by Collins, Hall and Paul and by Wasserman. This is significant not the least because Lewis’ theory of causation was the most influential theory over the last quarter of the 20th century; (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  28. Vacillating Time: A Metaphysics for Time Travel and Geachianism.Nikk Effingham - 2021 - Synthese 199 (3-4):7159-7180.
    ‘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 (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  29. Time Travel and Counterfactual Asymmetry.Alison Fernandes - 2021 - Synthese 198 (3):1983-2001.
    We standardly evaluate counterfactuals and abilities in temporally asymmetric terms—by keeping the past fixed and holding the future open. Only future events depend counterfactually on what happens now. Past events do not. Conversely, past events are relevant to what abilities one has now in a way that future events are not. Lewis, Sider and others continue to evaluate counterfactuals and abilities in temporally asymmetric terms, even in cases of backwards time travel. I’ll argue that we need more temporally neutral methods. (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   2 citations  
  30. A Queer Pregnancy: Affective Kinship, Time Travel and Reproductive Choice in Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival.Heather Latimer - 2021 - Feminist Theory 22 (3):429-442.
    This article engages with both queer theories of temporality and new materialist theories of kinship in order to analyse the reproductive politics of Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 film Arrival. It does so in order to speculate on what happens to the concept of reproductive choice when time is in a loop. Arrival uses time travel to disrupt the linearity of reproduction by allowing its protagonist, Louise, to see that a future child will die an early, horrible death, yet still having her (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  31. What Time-Travel Teaches Us About Future-Bias.Kristie Miller - 2021 - Philosophies 6 (38):38.
    Future-biased individuals systematically prefer positively valenced events to be in the future (positive future-bias) and negatively valenced events to be in the past (negative future-bias). The most extreme form of future-bias is absolute future-bias, whereby we completely discount the value of past events when forming our preferences. Various authors have thought that we are absolutely future-biased (Sullivan (2018:58); Parfit (1984:173) and that future-bias (absolute or otherwise) is at least rationally permissible (Prior (1959), Hare (2007; 2008), Kauppinen (2018), Heathwood (2008)). The (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  32. Multilocation Without Time Travel.Justin Mooney - 2021 - Erkenntnis 86 (6):1431-1444.
    Some philosophers defend the possibility of synchronic multilocation, and have even used it to defend other substantive metaphysical theses. But just how strong is the case for the possibility of synchronic multilocation? The answer to this question depends in part on whether synchronic multilocation is wedded to other controversial metaphysical notions. In this paper, I consider whether the possibility of synchronic multilocation depends on the possibility of time travel, and I conclude that the answer hinges on the nature of time (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  33. Philosophy of Time: A Contemporary Introduction.Sean Enda Power - 2021 - Routledge.
    As a growing area of research, the philosophy of time is increasingly relevant to different areas of philosophy and even other disciplines. This book describes and evaluates the most important debates in philosophy of time, under several subject areas: metaphysics, epistemology, physics, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, rationality, and art. -/- Questions this book investigates include: Can we know what time really is? Is time possible, especially given modern physics? Must there be time because we cannot think (...)
    $40.73 new   $50.89 used   Amazon page
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  34. Back to the (Branching) Future.Giacomo Andreoletti - 2020 - Acta Analytica 35 (2):181-194.
    The future is different from the past. What is past is fixed and set in stone. The future, on the other hand, is open insofar as it holds numerous possibilities. Branching-tree models of time account for this asymmetry by positing an ontological difference between the past and the future. Given a time t, a unique unified past lies behind t, whereas multiple alternative existing futures lie ahead of t. My goal in this paper is to show that there is an (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  35. Science Fiction and Philosophy: From Time Travel to Superintelligence (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016). [REVIEW]Stefano Bigliardi - 2020 - Journal of Science Fiction and Philosophy 3:1-19.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  36. Speaking of Derrida in Turkey.Zeynep Direk - 2020 - Eco-Ethica 9:165-186.
    This article takes up Derrida’s discussion of secularism as a development in Western Christian tradition and history and in his deconstruction of the opposition between secular and religious in “Faith and Knowledge: Two Sources of “Religion”at the Limits of Reason Alone.” What are the implications of Derrida’s discussion of originary faith in Turkey that has a majority of Muslim population, and a history of modernization and secularization? Should Turkey renounce secularism in education because it is not “really” part of its (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  37. Homologies in Freud and Derrida.Divya Dwivedi - 2020 - Eco-Ethica 9:187-207.
    Freud’s late works established the schema of a more or less inexorable civilizational course built around one drive—the death drive—despite his emphatic insistence on a dual structure of two drives. This schema became influential for Critical Theory and in a more subterranean way, also for decolonial thought, and has been widely invoked during the pandemic. It indicates the extent to which drive, destruction, and mastery have consolidated into a, which not only fails to be dislodged by but even informs Derrida’s (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  38. Time Travel: Probability and Impossibility.Nikk Effingham - 2020 - Oxford University Press.
    Time travel is metaphysically possible. Nikk Effingham contends that arguments for the impossibility of time travel are not sound. Focusing mainly on the Grandfather Paradox, Effingham explores the ramifications of taking this view, discusses issues in probability and decision theory, and considers the potential dangers of travelling in time.
    $70.97 new   $105.50 used   Amazon page
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  39. A physical interpretation of Lewis’ discrepancy between personal and external time in time travels.Vincenzo Fano & Giovanni Macchia - 2020 - Synthese 197 (11):4847-4866.
    This paper deals with those time travels mostly considered by physics, namely those in the form of the so-called closed timelike curves. Some authoritative scholars have raised doubts about the status of these journeys as proper time travels. By using David Lewis’ famous definition of time travels proposed in 1976, we show that this proper status may actually be recovered, at least in some cosmological contexts containing spacetime regions, such as those concerning black holes described by the Kerr–Newman metric, that (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  40. Freedom, self-prediction, and the possibility of time travel.Alison Fernandes - 2020 - Philosophical Studies 177 (1):89-108.
    Do time travellers retain their normal freedom and abilities when they travel back in time? Lewis, Horwich and Sider argue that they do. Time-travelling Tim can kill his young grandfather, his younger self, or whomever else he pleases—and so, it seems can reasonably deliberate about whether to do these things. He might not succeed. But he is still just as free as a non-time traveller. I’ll disagree. The freedom of time travellers is limited by a rational constraint. Tim can’t reasonably (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  41. No Crystal Balls.Jack Spencer - 2020 - Noûs 54 (1):105-125.
    The world is said to contain crystal balls whenever the present carries news of the as-yet-undetermined parts of the future. Many philosophers believe that crystal balls are metaphysically possible. In this essay, I argue that they are not. Whether crystal balls are possible matters, for at least two reasons. The first is epistemological. According to a simple, user-friendly chance norm for credence, which I call the Present Principle, agents are rationally required to conform their credences to their expectations of the (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (5 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
  42. Time Travel and the Immutability of the Past Within B-Theoretical Models.Giacomo Andreoletti & Giuliano Torrengo - 2019 - Philosophia 47 (4):1011-1021.
    The goal of this paper is to defend the general tenet that time travelers cannot change the past within B-theoretical models of time, independently of how many temporal dimensions there are. Baron Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98, 129–147 offered a strong argument intended to reach this general conclusion. However, his argument does not cover a peculiar case, i.e. a B-theoretical one-dimensional model of time that allows for the presence of internal times. Loss Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 96, 1–11 used the latter model (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (3 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  43. The End of Mystery.Sam Baron & Mark Colyvan - 2019 - American Philosophical Quarterly 56 (3):247-264.
    Tim travels back in time and tries to kill his grandfather before his father was born. Tim fails. But why? Lewis's response was to cite "coincidences": Tim is the unlucky subject of gun jammings, banana peels, sudden changes of heart, and so on. A number of challenges have been raised against Lewis's response. The latest of these focuses on explanation. This paper diagnoses the source of this new disgruntlement and offers an alternative explanation for Tim's failure, one that Lewis would (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  44. Would the Existence of CTCs Allow for Nonlocal Signaling?Lucas Dunlap - 2019 - Erkenntnis 84 (1):215-234.
    A recent paper from Brun et al. has argued that access to a closed timelike curve would allow for the possibility of perfectly distinguishing nonorthogonal quantum states. This result can be used to develop a protocol for instantaneous nonlocal signaling. Several commenters have argued that nonlocal signaling must fail in this and in similar cases, often citing consistency with relativity as the justification. I argue that this objection fails to rule out nonlocal signaling in the presence of a CTC. I (...)
    Remove from this list   Direct download (6 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  45. Navigating Intertemporal Choices: Mental Time Travel, Perspectival Imagery, and Prudent Decision-Making.C. J. McCarroll - 2019 - Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 6 (2):200-213.
    Remove from this list  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  46. Review of Paradoxes of Time Travel. [REVIEW]Giacomo Andreoletti - 2018 - Argumenta 6:381-384.
    Book review of Wasserman, R. (2017), Paradoxes of Time Travel, OUP.
    Remove from this list   Direct download  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  47. An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time.Sam Baron & Kristie Miller - 2018 - Cambridge: Polity Press.
    Time is woven into the fabric of our lives. Everything we do, we do in and across time. It is not just that our lives are stretched out in time, from the moment of birth to the moment of our death. It is that our lives are stories. We make sense of ourselves, today, by understanding who we were yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that; by understanding what we did and why we did it. Our memories (...)
    $21.41 used   $22.17 new   $26.95 from Amazon    Amazon page
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   6 citations  
  48. Philosophie du temps.Jiri Benovsky (ed.) - 2018 - La Baconnière.
    Comment les objets matériels persistent-ils à travers le temps ? Qu'est-ce que cela veut dire qu'un objet change tout en étant un et le même ? Peut-il y avoir un monde sans temps ? Le temps s'écoule-t-il même si rien ne change ? Et, le temps lui-même, qu'est-ce que c'est ? Consiste-t-il seulement en l'instant présent, ou le passé et le futur existent-ils également ? Est-il possible de voyager dans le temps ? Quelles propriétés le temps doit-il avoir pour permettre (...)
    Remove from this list  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark  
  49. Filosofia del Futuro.Samuele Iaquinto & Giuliano Torrengo - 2018 - Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
    Scopo del volume è offrire un’introduzione accessibile e rigorosa ai più recenti sviluppi di una fondamentale branca della filosofia del tempo: la filosofia del futuro. Vengono presentate e discusse alcune delle domande chiave del dibattito contemporaneo, ad esempio: il futuro è già scritto o esistono molti cammini alternativi che il tempo è in grado di imboccare? "Esistere" significa semplicemente essere presenti o ci sono veri e propri oggetti futuri? Siamo davvero liberi di scegliere quali azioni compiere e di modificare il (...)
    $19.21 new   Amazon page
    Remove from this list   Direct download (2 more)  
    Translate
     
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   1 citation  
  50. If Time Travel to Our Location is Possible, We Do Not Live in a Branching Universe.James Norton - 2018 - Analysis 78 (2):260-266.
    This paper argues for the following disjunction: either we do not live in a world with a branching temporal structure, or backwards time travel is nomologically impossible, given the initial state of the universe, or backwards time travel to our space-time location is impossible given large-scale facts about space and time. A fortiori, if backwards time travel to our location is possible, we do not live in a branching universe.
    Remove from this list   Direct download (4 more)  
     
    Export citation  
     
    Bookmark   3 citations  
1 — 50 / 390
BibTeX / EndNote / RIS / etc
Export this page:
Restrictions



Viewing options


Open Category Editor
Off-campus access
Using PhilPapers from home?

Create an account to enable off-campus access through your institution's proxy server.

Monitor this page
Be alerted of all new items appearing on this page. Choose how you want to monitor it:

Email   RSS feed
Editorial team
General Editors:
David Bourget (Western Ontario)
David Chalmers (ANU, NYU)

Area Editors:
David Bourget
Gwen Bradford
Berit Brogaard
Margaret Cameron
David Chalmers
James Chase
Rafael De Clercq
Ezio Di Nucci
Barry Hallen
Hans Halvorson
Jonathan Ichikawa
Michelle Kosch
Øystein Linnebo
JeeLoo Liu
Paul Livingston
Brandon Look
Manolo Martínez
Matthew McGrath
Michiru Nagatsu
Susana Nuccetelli
Giuseppe Primiero
Jack Alan Reynolds
Darrell P. Rowbottom
Aleksandra Samonek
Constantine Sandis
Howard Sankey
Jonathan Schaffer
Thomas Senor
Robin Smith
Daniel Star
Jussi Suikkanen
Lynne Tirrell
Aness Kim Webster

Other editors
Contact us
Learn more about PhilPapers

Home | New books and articles | Bibliographies | Philosophy journals | Discussions | Article Index | About PhilPapers | API | Contact us | Code of conduct

CDP Phiosophy Documentation Center
PhilPapers logo by Andrea Andrews and Meghan Driscoll.
This site uses cookies and Google Analytics (see our terms & conditions for details regarding the privacy implications).

Use of this site is subject to terms & conditions.
All rights reserved by The PhilPapers Foundation

Page generated Wed Jan 26 10:30:19 2022 on philpapers-web-79666d8574-k8hhk