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C‐theories of time: On the adirectionality of time
Author(s) -
Farr Matt
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
philosophy compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.973
H-Index - 25
ISSN - 1747-9991
DOI - 10.1111/phc3.12714
Subject(s) - statement (logic) , universe , epistemology , set (abstract data type) , metric expansion of space , b theory of time , computer science , philosophy , theoretical physics , physics , astrophysics , cosmology , dark energy , programming language
‘The universe is expanding, not contracting’. Many statements of this form appear unambiguously true; after all, the discovery of the universe's expansion is one of the great triumphs of empirical science. However, the statement is time‐directed: the universe expands towards what we call the future; it contracts towards the past. If we deny that time has a direction, should we also deny that the universe is really expanding? This article draws together and discusses what I call ‘C‐theories’ of time—in short, philosophical positions that hold time lacks a direction—from different areas of the literature. I set out the various motivations, aims and problems for C‐theories, and outline different versions of antirealism about the direction of time.