Is There Change on the B-theory of Time?

European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 17 (1):(B1)5-28 (2021)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore the connection between change and the B-theory of time, sometimes also called the Scientific view of time, according to which reality is a four-dimensional spacetime manifold, where past, present and future things equally exist, and the present time and non-present times are metaphysically the same. I argue in favour of a novel response to the much-vexed question of whether there is change on the B-theory or not. In fact, B-theorists are often said to hold a ‘static’ view of time. But this far from being innocent label: if the B-theory of time presents a model of temporal reality that is static, then there is no change on the B-theory. From this, one can reasonably think as follows: of course, there is change, so the B-theory must be false. What I plan to do in this paper is to argue that in some sense there is change on the B-theory, but in some other sense, there is no change on the B-theory. To do so, I present three instances of change: Existential Change, namely the view that things change with respect to their existence over time; Qualitative Change, the view that things change with respect to how they are over time; Propositional Change, namely the view that things (i.e. propositions) change with respect to truth value over time. I argue that while there is a reading of these three instances of change that is true on the B-theory, and so there is change on the B-theory in this sense, there is a B-theoretical reading of each of them that is not true on the B-theory, and therefore there is no change on the B-theory in this other sense.

Similar books and articles

A (Limited) Defence of Priorianism.Daniel Deasy - 2023 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 66 (10):2037-2062.
Lewis, Change and Temporary Intrinsics.Mario Alai - 2016 - Axiomathes 26 (4):467-487.
Could time be change?Denis Corish - 2009 - Philosophy 84 (2):219-232.
The problem(s) of change revisited.Tobias Hansson - 2007 - Dialectica 61 (2):265–274.
Temporal Experience and Metaphysics.Graham Peebles - 2017 - Manuscrito 40 (1):145-182.
Endurance and Discernibility.Robert Francescotti - 2008 - Metaphysica 9 (2):193-204.
The Minimal A-theory.Meghan Sullivan - 2012 - Philosophical Studies 158 (2):149-174.
Time, change and time without change.Ken Warmbrod - 2017 - Synthese 194 (8):3047-3067.
Temporal Passage, Continuity, and Existence.Charles Jackson Klein - 1999 - Dissertation, University of Virginia

Analytics

Added to PP
2021-07-11

Downloads
720 (#20,286)

6 months
137 (#20,622)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Luca Banfi
University College Dublin

Citations of this work

Add more citations

References found in this work

Writing the Book of the World.Theodore Sider - 2011 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David K. Lewis - 1986 - Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell.
Modal Logic as Metaphysics.Timothy Williamson - 2013 - Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.
On the Plurality of Worlds.David Lewis - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (3):388-390.
Relativism and Monadic Truth.Herman Cappelen & John Hawthorne - 2009 - Oxford, GB: Oxford University Press UK. Edited by John Hawthorne.

View all 48 references / Add more references