My new intermediate theory of time has several advantages. First of all, it gains all the advantages possessed by the A Theory. It accords with our temporal phenomenology, including our sense of the fleetingness of the present moment. Each mode of being is associated with each moment of time only fleetingly. Second, it supports our intuition that the order of time is unique and fundamental. Time really flows from the past into the future in a uniquely directed, inexorable way. The flow of time is not a mere appearance or convention. Third, it provides an explanation for the impossibility of time travel, enabling us to explain why we cannot encounter instances of the Grandfather Paradox (a time-traveler who murders his own grandfather). Later moments in time are later by virtue of having a smaller set of potential futures. Consequently, it is logically impossible for a later moment to become earlier than an earlier one via time travel.
At the same time, the intermediate theory reaps many of the advantages of the B Theory (Eternalism). It is fully compatible with God's exhaustive knowledge of the future. The future is as real as the past, and so there is no bar to God's eternally knowing all moments of time in a single act of knowledge. The intermediate theory is also fully compatible with the standard interpretation of relativity: that is, the intermediate theory is compatible with the non-existence of a global, absolute relation of simultaneity between distant (space like separated) events. The flow of time is real, but flow of time at one event need not be globally synchronized with the flow of time at distant events. Every worldline (corresponding to the life of a substance or quantitative part of a substance) has its own Metaphysical Clock, and distant clocks are not absolutely synchronized. The intermediate theory also avoids the truthmaker problems that afflict Presentism.
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AuthorRob Koons, a professor of philosophy, trained in the analytic tradition at Oxford and UCLA. Specializing in the further development of the Aristotle-Aquinas tradition in metaphysics and the philosophy of nature. Archives
August 2022
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