Card 1.4 · Root I — Metaphysics
Philosophy of Time
Does time pass, or does it only seem to?
Philosophy of time asks what time is, whether it genuinely passes, and whether past and future exist in the way the present does.
On this card
Where it sits
Under I. Metaphysics. Contains 1.4.1 Persistence and change, 1.4.2 Causation. Borders 1.5 Philosophy of space, 6.11 Philosophy of physics.
New to metaphysics? Read the guide
Narrower questions under this one:
- 1.4.1 Persistence and Change If you are bent when sitting and straight when standing, how can both be true of you?
- 1.4.2 Causation What do you actually see when you see one thing cause another?
The rival answers
Spectrum only now is real → all moments equally real
| Position | What exists | Does time pass? |
|---|---|---|
| Presentism | Only the present moment | Yes, genuinely |
| Growing block | Past and present; the future is open | Yes; reality accumulates |
| Moving spotlight | All moments, with the present illuminated | Yes, as a moving now |
| Eternalism | All moments, equally | No; passage is perspectival |
Where do you stand?
Does time pass, or does it only seem to?
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Key figures
| Figure | Dates | Tradition | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parmenides | c. 515–450 BCE | Greek | Being is unchanging; how this bears on experienced change is disputed |
| Heraclitus | c. 540–480 BCE | Greek | Change is central to his account; whether he held a doctrine of universal flux is disputed |
| Augustine | 354–430 | Patristic | Time as an extension of the mind; the past and future exist only in memory and expectation |
| Vasubandhu | c. 4th–5th c. CE | Indian Buddhist | Momentariness; entities last an instant |
| J. M. E. McTaggart | 1866–1925 | British Idealist | The A-series/B-series distinction; argued time is unreal |
| Dogen | 1200–1253 | Japanese Zen | Being-time; existence and time are not separable |
Talk about it here
Conversations about this question in Time & space:
- Leibniz had the better of the argument with Clarke 5 replies
- Reading group: McTaggart’s ‘The Unreality of Time’ and Prior’s ‘Thank Goodness That’s Over’ 5 replies
- If the past no longer exists, what exactly is my regret about? 5 replies
- What is the “block universe”, and does relativity force it on us? 4 replies
- Mulla Sadra’s substantial motion: is everything changing at the level of substance? 4 replies
Join free to ask about it Everything in Time & space
Connections
→ 1.1, 1.4.1 · ↔ 1.5, 6.11, 1.7, 1.2.1 · ◇ presentism, eternalism, growing block, moving spotlight · ○ Axial Age; Scholastic; Modern; Table 1
→ depends on · ↔ borders: genuine overlap, neither prior · ◇ answered by: points from question to answers · ○ appears in: points to the timeline and the comparisons
The full card is in the book
In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 56.