The Block Universe B-Theory of Time - Eternalism (Huw Price)

source: Philosophical Overdose    2013年10月17日
The ancient philosophical dispute between Heraclitus and Parmenides in many ways continues to this day. One side accepts temporal Becoming as real and fundamental, while the other side declares it a subjective illusion. According to the former, dynamic view, time is conceived of as something which objectively "flows". This seems to require a distinguished present moment which is always changing, and which is ontologically special in some sense. But on the static conception of time (i.e. the block universe), there's no real objective passage. And so past, present, and future events are all ontologically equal. There's no privileged present moment or "now" built into the universe on this view. The universe is conceived as eternal and unchanging.
If something is missing from the 'block universe' conception of time, what is it, exactly? In this introductory survey Huw Price distinguishes three possible answers to this question, all apparently independent of each other. However, while there are three possible exits from the block universe, Price argues that they all seem to be dead ends.
This talk was part of a conference on whether we need a physics of temporal passage. It was given as part of the project New Agendas for the Study of Time: http://newagendasstudyoftime.wordpres...