Time

Aims

The course provides students with an introduction to the topic of the ontology of time. Students will be introduced to key questions such as the relation between the A-series (present-past-future) and the B-series (before-after), the nature of the passage of time and of becoming.

Contents

The course begins with a review of the principal categories and theses employed in the ontology and metaphysics of time. It then considers in detail the arguments for and against some of the main views about time, including the claims that A-time is all in the head, that there is no change, that past and future exist, that the passage of time is an illusion.

Coursework

The course consists of a series of lectures alternating with presentations given by students and general discussions. The students will be required to submit regular written work and produce a research paper at the end of the course.

Reading

Bourne, C. 2006. A Future for Presentism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cameron, R. 2015. The Moving Spotlight: An Essay on Time & Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Keller, S. 2004. Presentism and Truthmaking. In Zimmerman, D. Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Vol. 1, 83-104.

Markosian, N. 2004. A Defence of Presentism. In Zimmerman, D. Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Vol. 1, 47-82.

Mellor, D. H. 1998. Real Time II. London: Routledge.

Sattig, T. 2006. The Language and Reality of Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Sider, T. 2001. Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Time and Persistence. New York: Oxford University Press.

Tooley, M. 1997. Time, Tense, and Causation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.