Time-Travel for Philosophers: A monograph

Project Details

Description

Complete book-length treatment of all major (and many minor) philosophical problems centred around time travel, including problems in persistence, causation, identity, laws of nature and even computation – now under preparation for Oxford University Press.

Layman's description

Time travel poses unique philosophcial problems which can be accessed and understood by readers of a wide range of philosophical abilities and interests.

Key findings

The best-fitting theory of laws of nature for time travel scenarios is some version of the Mill-Ramsey-Lewis (MRL) view, but MRL in turn means that time travel (if non-actual) generates its own peculiar laws of nature

Time travel spacetime offer unique and otherwise unattainable possibilities for hypercomputation, which evade problems in cosmic censorship faced by temporally standard hypercomputers.

The personal/external time distinction essential to time travel radically affects our understanding of the value and extension of personal time, and also sheds light on ancient argument for regarding death as something non-existent.
StatusFinished
Effective start/end date1/01/0931/01/10

Funding

  • AHRC: £28,566.00

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