Lecture
LTP Colloquium 'Must there be time?'
- Date
- Thursday 19 December 2024
- Time
- Location
-
P.J. Veth
Nonnensteeg 1-3
2311 VJ Leiden - Room
- 0.06
The Leiden University Centre Theoretical Philosophy is pleased to announce a lecture by Dr. Daniel E. Deasy, Associate Professor of Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at University College Dublin (UCD).
It seems plausible that there could have been no moments of time, and therefore that reality could have been timeless in that sense. In this paper, I describe and assess an argument for the surprising conclusion that there must be at least one moment of time. First, I distinguish two different views about what moments of time are: the ‘Concretist’ view that they are concrete entities, such as regions of spacetime; and the ‘Higher-orderist’ view that they are types of properties or propositions. Then I describe some reasons for thinking that there could be no moments. Finally, I describe an argument for the view that there must be at least one moment, as well as some possible responses to that argument. I conclude that the argument can be resisted, but also that there is a version of the ‘Higher-orderist’ view on which it is natural to think that there must be at least one moment of time.