Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

Foundations of Physics 49 (12):1325-1335 (2019)
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Abstract

Is reality three-dimensional and becoming real (Presentism), or is reality four-dimensional and becoming illusory (Eternalism)? Both options raise difficulties. I argue that we do not need to be trapped by this dilemma. There is a third possibility: reality has a more complex temporal structure than either of these two naive options. Fundamental becoming is real, but local and unoriented. A notion of present is well defined, but only locally and in the context of approximations.

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Author's Profile

Carlo Rovelli
Aix-Marseille University

Citations of this work

Eternalism and Perspectival Realism About the ‘Now’.Matias Slavov - 2020 - Foundations of Physics 50 (11):1398-1410.
Relational Passage of Time.Matias Slavov - 2022 - New York: Routledge.
Emergence of Time.George F. R. Ellis & Barbara Drossel - 2020 - Foundations of Physics 50 (3):161-190.
Presentist Fragmentalism and Quantum Mechanics.Paul Merriam - 2022 - Foundations of Physics 52 (4):1-8.

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Time and physical geometry.Hilary Putnam - 1967 - Journal of Philosophy 64 (8):240-247.
The Order of Time.Carlo Rovelli - 2018 - [London]: Allen Lane. Edited by Erica Segre & Simon Carnell.
On Einstein--Minkowski space--time.Howard Stein - 1968 - Journal of Philosophy 65 (1):5-23.
The Unreality of Time.J. Ellis McTaggart - 1908 - Philosophical Review 18:466.

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