Metaphysics

Novy SP08

Notes for McTaggart’s “The Unreality of Time”

Definitions:

  1. A-Series: ordered events in terms of past, present, future
    1. Divides events into past, present, future;
    2. Events change: this class is first in the future, then in the present, then in the past
    3. Tensed: breakfast is “earlier than” this class & this class is “later than” breakfast

                                                               i.      B-series + now

  1. B-Series: ordered events in terms of earlier and later
    1. Events are permanently situated: if breakfast is earlier than this class, then it is never later than this class
    2. Tenseless: breakfast is “earlier than” this class & this class is “later than” breakfast

                                                               i.      C-series + direction → B-series

  1. C-Series: ordered events in terms of between
    1. Events can be ordered without reference to direction (as in A-series & B-series)

                                                               i.      Symmetrical rather than asymmetrical relation of events

    1. This class occurs between breakfast & dinner = this class occurs between dinner & breakfast

 

Claim: A-series is essential for time

  1. Change is essential to time (if there were no change, there would be no time)
  2. In the B-series, there can be no change
    1. Example: the poker is cold at T1; hot at T2

                                            i.      Poker being cold is simultaneous with T1

                                          ii.      Poker being hot is simultaneous with T2

                                         iii.      Both are permanent: if true, they are always true

                                         iv.      \No change in B-series (there is no “becoming” hot)

                                           v.      A-series: If the poker being hot at T2 was not only later than the event of it being cold, but was first future, then present, then past of it being cold at T1, then there would be change

  1. \ The A-series is required for time to exist
    1. Rejecting two objections to conclusion #3

                                                               i.      In fiction, we often imagine time w/o connection to actual past, present, future

1.       No, if we imagine a story is real, we fit it into A-series framework

2.       “once upon a time,” “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away”

                                                             ii.      There might be multiple independent time-series

1.       If there is more than one present, there is more than one time

 

A-series leads to a contradiction

  1. Past, present, & future are either (P) properties of events or (R) relations between events
  2. If (P), the event has incompatible properties
    1. “E is present & E has been future & E will be past”
    2. Properties of E: (p1) “in the past it was in the future,” (p2) “in the past was in the present” and (p3) “in the past it was in the past”
    3. Restate (p1) “both in the past it was not in the present & in the past it was not in the past”
    4. Contradictions galore: within (p1) and between (p1) & (p3)
  3. \not (P)
  4. If (R), than the A-series does not express anything that cannot be expressed without it
    1. The Problem:

                                                               i.      E is future at T1 means that E is later than T1

                                                             ii.      E is present at T2 means E is simultaneous with T2

                                                            iii.      E is past at T3 means E is earlier than T3

    1. A-Series has been re-conceptualized as a B-Series
  1. \ not (R)
  2. \ not A-series
  3. \ time is unreal