Time, Tense, and Causation - Hardcover

Tooley, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198235798 ISBN 13: 9780198235798

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 1997

Synopsis

Michael Tooley presents a major new philosophical study of time and its relation to causation. The nature of time has always been one of the most fascinating and perplexing problems of philosophy; it has in recent years become the focus of vigorous debate between advocates of rival theories. The traditional, `tensed' accounts of time which hold that time has a direction and that the flow of time is part of the nature of the universe have been challenged by `tenseless' accounts of time, according to which past, present, and future are merely subjective features of experience, rather than objective features of events. Time, Tense and Causation offers a new approach, in many ways intermediate between these two rivals. Tooley shares with tensed approaches the views that the universe if dynamic, and that the past and present are real while the future is not; but he rejects the view that this points to the existence of irreducible tensed facts. Tooley's approach accounts for time in terms of its relation to causation; he argues that the direction of time is based upon the direction of causation, and that the key to understanding the dynamic nature of the universe is to understand the nature of causation. He analyses tensed concepts, and discusses semantic issues about truth and time, Finally, addressing the formidable difficulties posed for tensed accounts of time by the Special Theory of Relativity, he suggests that a modified version of the theory, compatible with the account of time in this book, is to be preferred to the standard version. Time, Tense, and Causation is rich in sophisticated and stimulating discussions of many of the deepest problems of metaphysics. It will be essentail reading for anyone specialising in this area of philosophy.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Tooley is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Colorado, Boulder. He held positions previously at the Australian National University, the University of Western Australia, and the University of Miami. He has been a visiting professor at Stanford, Wichita State, and Utah. He is the author of Abortion and Infanticide (OUP 1983) and Causation: A Realist Approach (OUP 1987). He co-edited with Ernest Sosa the volume on Causation (1993) in the Oxford Readings in Philosophy series.

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198235798
• ISBN 13: 9780198235798
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 420