The Metaphysics of Time: A Dialogue

by Bradley Dowden

Overview

Seventh in the New Dialogues in Philosophy series, this book discusses the concept of time and shows in the simplest ways how time informs discussions about causality, creation, physics, consciousness of time, and much more. Creating a series of conversations between two fictional characters, Bradley Dowden uses the characters to explore nine metaphysical issues involving time. Through the dialogue between his two protagonists, Dowden offers well-known arguments in the field of metaphysics for positions on such topics as the finite nature of time, absolute versus relational time, and Zeno's paradoxes of motion. The book draws on the theories of numerous philosophers, including Aristotle, Quine, Chrysippus, St. Augustine, Earman, Van Fraassen, Liebniz, and Hawking.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742560314
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/16/2009
Series:	New Dialogues in Philosophy
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Bradley Dowden is professor of philosophy at California State University, Sacramento. He has written one text in philosophy, Logical Reasoning (Thomson-Wadsworth), and is a general editor of the online Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Table of Contents

1 Table of Contents
Chapter 2 1. Introduction
Chapter 3 2. Fatalism, Free Will, and Foreknowledge
Chapter 4 3. Mind, the Metric, and Conventionality
Chapter 5 4. Time Travel and Backward Causation
Chapter 6 5. Time's Origin, and Relationism vs. Substantivalism
Chapter 7 6. McTaggart, Tensed Facts, and Time's Flow
Chapter 8 7. Presentism, the Block Universe, and Perduring Objects
Chapter 9 8. The Arrow of Time
Chapter 10 9. Zeno's Paradoxes and Supertasks
Chapter 11 10. Glossary

Editorial Reviews

A promising new series that offers noteable contemporary philosophers the opportunity to write books in a neglected format that has proven historically to be remarkably fruitful.--Steven M. Cahn

From the Publisher

A promising new series that offers noteable contemporary philosophers the opportunity to write books in a neglected format that has proven historically to be remarkably fruitful.

Steven M. Cahn