Time and Space : Second Edition

Surveying both historical debates and modern physics, Barry Dainton evaluates the central arguments in a clear and unintimidating way that keeps conceptual issues comprehensible to students with little scientific or mathematical training and makes the philosophy of space and time accessible to anyone trying to come to grips with the complexities of this challenging subject. With over 100 original line illustrations and a full glossary of terms, Time and Space keeps the requirements of students firmly in sight and will continue to serve as the ideal textbook for philosophy of time and space courses. Cover Title Copyright Contents Preface to the second edition Preface to the first edition 1. Preliminaries 1.1 Ontology: the existence of space and time 1.2 Questions of structure 1.3 Physics and metaphysics 1.4 Time: the great divide 1.5 Two frameworks 1.6 Matters terminological 2. McTaggart on time's unreality 2.1 Could time be unreal? 2.2 Change as the essence of time 2.3 McTaggart's A-paradox 2.4 Other routes to the same place 2.5 The nature of A-properties 2.6 The overdetermination problem 2.7 Consequences 3. The Block universe 3.1 Time without passage 3.2 Passage and experience 3.3 A-truth in a B-world 3.4 Another A-paradox 3.5 The indispensability of the A-framework 3.6 Questions of attitude 3.7 B-theories of change 3.8 Emergent time 4. Asymmetries within time 4.1 The direction of time 4.2 Content-asymmetries: a fuller picture 4.3 Entropy 4.4 The causal route 4.5 Causation in question 4.6 Time in reverse 4.7 Fundamental forks 5. Tensed time 5.1 Tense versus dynamism 5.2 Taking tense seriously 5.3 McTaggart revisited 5.4 Is tense enough? 6. Dynamic time 6.1 The Growing Block 6.2 Overdetermination 6.3 Dynamism without tense 6.4 The thinning tree 6.5 How can a block grow? 6.6 The eternal past 6.7 The varieties of Presentism 6.8 Solipsistic Presentism 6.9 Many-Worlds Presentism 6.10 Dynamic Presentism 6.11 Compound Presentism 7. Time and consciousness 7.1 The micro-phenomenology of time 7.2 Memory based accounts 7.3 The pulse theory 7.4 Awareness and overlap 7.5 The two-dimensional model 7.6 The overlap theory 7.7 The phenomenal arrow 7.8 Further consequences 8. Time travel 8.1 Questions of possibility and paradox 8.2 Misconceptions and multidimensions 8.3 Self-defeating loops 8.4 Global consistency constraints 8.5 Bilking 8.6 Quantum retroaction 8.7 The inexplicable 8.8 Voyaging in dynamic time 8.9 Real time 9. Conceptions of void 9.1 Space as void 9.2 The unseen constrainer 9.3 Connection in question 9.4 Substantivalism: a closer look 9.5 Relationism: a closer look 9.6 Two concepts of distance 9.7 Two conceptions of motion 9.8 Matters terminological 10. Space: the classical debate 10.1 The last of the magicians 10.2 Galileo 10.3 Descartes 10.4 Leibniz 10.5 The argument from indiscernibility 10.6 The argument from sufficient reason 10.7 The methodological argument 11. Absolute motion 11.1 Inertial motion 11.2 The argument for real inertial motions 11.3 The argument from inertial effects 11.4 Stalemate? 11.5 The Leibnizian response 11.6 The Machian response 11.7 The Sklar response 12. Motion in spacetime 12.1 Newtonian spacetime 12.2 Neo-Newtonian spacetime 12.3 The only reasonable view? 12.4 A threat vanquished 12.5 The charge of explanatory impotence 12.6 A rebuttal 12.7 Newtonian spacetime relationism 12.8 Neo-Newtonian spacetime relationism 12.9 Relationism redux 13. Curved space 13.1 New angles on old problems 13.2 Flat and curved spaces 13.3 The fifth postulate 13.4 Intrinsic curvature 13.5 Topology 13.6 Conventionalism 13.7 Realism versus anti-realism 14. Tangible space 14.1 Manifestations of curvature 14.2 The detachment thesis 14.3 The explanatory challenge 14.4 A solitary hand 14.5 Global structures 15. Spatial anti-realism 15.1 Foster on matter and space 15.2 The intrinsic and the inscrutable 15.3 Modes of deviancy 15.4 Intrinsic versus functional geometry 15.5 The nomological thesis 15.6 Nomological contingency 15.7 Realism rejected 15.8 Geometrical pluralism 16. Zeno and the continuum I 16.1 Motion and the continuum 16.2 Numbering the continuum 16.3 The "Dichotomy" 16.4 The paradox of plurality 16.5 Cantor's continuum 16.6 Plurality, measure and metric 16.7 The Dichotomy revisited Appendix 17. Zeno and the continuum II 17.1 The "Arrow" 17.2 Velocity as intrinsic 17.3 The "Stadium" 17.4 Could our spacetime be discrete? 17.5 The standard continuum: basic concerns and further puzzles 17.6 Are more points the answer? 17.7 Extension as fundamental 18. Special relativity 18.1 Time, space and Einstein 18.2 Lightspeed 18.3 Compensation or revolution? 18.4 Simultaneity 18.5 Minkowski spacetime 19. Relativity and reality 19.1 Reality unconfined 19.2 Compatibilism 19.3 Time fragmented 19.4 Absolute simultaneity: the quantum connection 20. General relativity 20.1 The limits of STR 20.2 Equivalence 20.3 Spacetime curvature 20.4 Feeling the grip of spacetime 20.5 Evidence 20.6 Equations 20.7 Relativistic cosmology 21. Spacetime metaphysics 21.1 Substantival spacetime 2 1.2 Mach's Principle 21.3 The hole argument 21.4 Metrical essentialism 21.5 An outmoded debate? 21.6 GTR and time 22. Strings 22.1 Higher dimensions 22.2 Kaluza-Klein theory 22.3 The standard model 22.4 Strings 22.5 Calabi-Ydu space 22.6 Branes and bulk 22.7 Shards Notes Glossary Web resources Bibliography Index This fully revised edition of this standard work on the philosophy of time and space includes two new chapters on Zeno's paradoxes, new material on dynamic time, speculative contemporary developments in physics, and time and consciousness, making the second edition, once again, unrivalled in its breadth of coverage.