Oxford Scholarship Online: Time, Tense, and Causation

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Subject: Philosophy Book Title: Time, Tense, and Causation

Time, Tense, and Causation Tooley, Michael, Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Boulder Print publication date: 2000 Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: November 2003 Print ISBN-13: 978-0-19-825074-6 doi:10.1093/0198250746.001.0001
Abstract: Defends a dynamic, or tensed, conception of time, according to which the past and the present are real while the future is not. This conception differs from traditional tensed views, according to which tensed facts are more basic than tenseless ones; on the contrary, tensed facts reduce to tenseless ones.The conception of time defended is supported by arguments from causation: there can be causation only in a world where the past and the present are real, while the future is not.Further, the direction of time can be defined by the direction of causation, and causation can be used to analyse temporal relations such as the relations of simultaneity and temporal priority.The dynamic conception of time developed is contrasted with alternative views and defended against numerous philosophical objections.It is also defended against implications of the Special Theory of Relativity: A modified version of the Special Theory of Relativity that allows for absolute simultaneity is suggested. Keywords: causation, direction of time, Special Theory of Relativity, temporal relations, tense, tensed facts, tenseless facts, time Table of Contents Full Book Contents Preface Introduction Part I. Causation, Time, and Ontology 1. The Nature of Time: Alternative Accounts and Basic Issues 2. Actuality and Actuality as of a Time 3. Temporally Relative Facts and the Argument from Preventability 4. Facts, Causation, and Time Part II. Semantical Issues 5. Truth and Truth at a Time Part III. Tensed Facts 6. Tensed Accounts of the Nature of Time 7. Past, Present, and Future 8. Past, Present, and Future: Alternative Accounts Part IV. Temporal Relations 9. Causation and Temporal Relations Part V. Objections 10. Philosophical Objections 11. The Special Theory of Relativity and the Unreality of the Future Part VI. A Summing-Up 12. Summary and Conclusions Bibliography Index

doi:10.1093/0198250746.001.0001