Introductory description

The nature of time has been a preoccupation of Western philosophy since its beginnings in Ancient Greece. Time is a fundamental, ever-present, feature of our lives, and yet something that can come to look deeply puzzling as soon as we start thinking about it.

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

I. The Metaphysics of Time
The B-theory of Time
Presentism
The Moving Spotlight
Time and Relativity
Time Travel
II. Temporal Experience
The Snapshot Theory of Temporal Experience
Retentionalism
Extensionalism
Passage and Illusion
Human Time and Physical Time

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• At the end of the module, students will have a good understanding of a number of ways in which time has been and continues to be the subject of philosophical debates, and will be able to critically evaluate different claims made about time in the history of philosophy, and in different areas of philosophy such as metaphysics, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of mind.

Indicative reading list

Bardon, Adrian (ed.) (2013), The future of the philosophy of time. Routledge.
Callender, Craig (Ed.) (2011), Oxford handbook of philosophy of time. Oxford University Press. Especially chapters by Huw Price (The Flow of Time), David Brink (Prospects for Temporal Neutrality), Jenann Ismael (Temporal Experience).
Dainton, Barry (2010), Time and space, second edn. Routledge.
Deng, Natalja (2013). Our experience of passage on the B-theory. Erkenntnis.
Dummett, Michael (1978). A defence of McTaggart’s proof of the unreality of time. In: Truth and other enigmas. Duckworth
Dyke, Heather & Bardon, Adrian (Eds.) (2013), A companion to the philosophy of time. Wiley Blackwell.
Lewis, David (1976). The Paradoxes of Time Travel. American Philosophical Quarterly 13 (2):145-152.
Markosian, Ned (2014). Time. In: E. N. Zalta (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), URL = http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2014/entries/time/
Paul, L. A. (2010). Temporal experience. Journal of Philosophy.
Olson, Eric (2009), The Passage of Time. In: R. LePoidevin et al. (Eds), The Routledge Companion to Metaphysics.
Phillips, Ian (ed.) (2017), The Routledge handbook of philosophy of temporal experience. Routledge

Interdisciplinary

As part of the module, we will consider connections between the philosophy of time and the psychology of time. We will also consider some aspects of the physics of time.

Subject specific skills

Students should be able to express themselves using precise philosophical vocabulary, appreciate what makes some questions about the nature and experience of time distinctly philosophical ones, and engage independently in philosophical debate.

Transferable skills

(i) The capacity to read complex material effectively and critically.
(ii) The capacity to explain ideas and arguments clearly, briefly and accurately.
(iii) The capacity o think about problems by deploying the capacity for clear thinking and reasoning
(iv) The capacity to communicate effectively in a group environment.