Updating Reality: Dynamism in the Philosophy of Time

This one-day conference aims to bring together philosophers of time from across the UK and Europe to work out what the passage of time amounts to. There are various ways that we might understand the passage of time. This conference will explore the idea that the passage of time should be understood in terms of a continual change in how things (in the most general sense) are (in the most general sense).

The thought that time involves a continual change in how things are goes back, at least, to Heraclitus, though since then there has been a superfluity of different distinctions and terms to try and grapple with the nature of temporal passage. One may speak of Tensed theories of time, A-theories of time, Heraclitean theories of time, or Dynamic theories of time. The range of different terminology available contributes to a confusion about what a commitment to temporal passage might involve. Nevertheless, experience of time’s passage is one of the most ubiquitous features of experience. A central aim of this conference is to clarify the nature of a commitment to time’s passage, so that we can get beyond terminological confusion to a metaphysical account of this most ubiquitous features of our lives. This conference also aims to examine the arguments in favour of an account of temporal passage in terms of a continual change in how things are, in contrast with other accounts that try and capture temporal passage in terms of changing truths that describe an unchanging reality, or by viewing temporal passage as a feature of our perspective rather than admitting that our experiences of time passing reflect a feature of the world.

Contact Please direct all enquiries to [email protected]


Timetable

9.30am Registration

10am Jonathan Tallant (Nottingham)
Existence Presentism: A dynamic theory of time?

11.30am tea/coffee

11.45am Eric T. Olson (Sheffield)

Capturing Time's Passage

1.15pm Lunch

2.30pm Graeme A. Forbes (Kent)

Goldilocks and the Three Metaphysics of Time

4.00pm tea/coffee

4.15pm Emily Thomas (Groningen)

A Brief History of Early Modern Time

5.45pm conference ends

Dinner in the evening

Acknowledgements
This workshop is generously supported by the Mind Association, and The School of European Cultures and Languages, University of Kent.