ACOT.... back to time. There are basically three was to view it. First you can believe that only the now exists and past memories are illusions generated (presentalism). Second you can believe that time is eternal and fixed (eternalism) that all things are pre-determined. Or third, you can believe what common-sense tells us that time is a flow that passes from future to present to past. Basically any metaphysics of time falls into one of these three. Now the solopsist may have a fourth alternative, that all time is an illusion within his or her own mind (which is the only mind), but one cannot discuss anything with them, so I do not discuss that kind of thought.
That much being said, there are generally two modes of Western analysis of time. One can take the mode of McTaggert, where he comes to the philosophical conclusion that our experience of time passing is an illusion. Time is fixed and we imagine we pass through it. From his wiki article:
"In
The Unreality of Time (1908), the work for which he is best known today, McTaggart argued that our perception of
time is an
illusion[1], and that time itself is merely
ideal. He introduced the notions of the
"A series" and "B series" interpretations of time, representing two different ways that events in time can be arranged. The A series corresponds to our everyday notions of
past,
present, and
future. The A series is "the series of positions running from the far past through the near past to the present, and then from the present to the near future and the far future" (p. 458). This is contrasted with the B series, in which positions are ordered from earlier to later, i.e. the series running from earlier to later moments.
McTaggart argued that the A series was a necessary component of any full theory of time, but that it was also
self-contradictory and that our perception of time was, therefore, ultimately an incoherent illusion."
The second mode of analysis is Einsteinian. That is, based on his theories of relativity. To wit, time is merely a fourth dimension. Time has no independent basis. From the into to reltivity wiki"
"The last consequence of Minkowski's spacetime [the unification of time and apce into a four dimensional world Einstein used] is that clocks will appear to be out of phase with each other along the length of a moving object. This means that if one observer sets up a line of clocks that are all synchronised so they all read the same time, then another observer who is moving along the line at high speed will see the clocks all reading different times. This means that observers who are moving relative to each other see different events as simultaneous. This effect is known as "Relativistic Phase" or the "Relativity of Simultaneity". The "plane of simultaneity" or "surface of simultaneity" contains all those events that happen at the same instant for a given observer. Events that are simultaneous for one observer are not simultaneous for another observer in relative motion. Observers have a set of simultaneous events around them that they regard as composing the present instant. The relativity of simultaneity results in observers who are moving relative to each other having different sets of events in their present instant. The net effect of the four-dimensional universe is that observers who are in motion relative to you seem to have time coordinates that lean over in the direction of motion, and consider things to be simultaneous that are not simultaneous for you."
Since our time is defined in terms of things that are simultaneous and relativity states that they are only relatively simultaneous, it must be that out time is an illusion and is actually fixed just like location.
McTaggart and Einstein both then believe in and argue for eternalism or "A Block Universe". That is if we had a four dimensional aquarium filled with a map of locations and times we could "see" our particular life as a line wiggling through the aquarium. This was the basis for a couple of early (and great) Heinline stories.
But if you add that you can then have perfect knowledge (just like Newton and LaPlace hypothecized) you could predict everything in the past and in the future. Hence, everything is pre-destined and our feelings of the passage of time and free will are merely illusions. As Cartwright said of mind "it is but an epiphomena of what you had for dinner last night".
The arguements for materialism (mind epiphenominalism) and eternalism (fixed time) are, supposedly, what all good little scientists and philosophers are supposed to hold. However, if someone raised a gun towards you and you were one of these you would probably duck anyway.
I have presented the standard scientific version of time pretty well here, if you want me to I can go on to talk about the alternatives. Up to you.
Pax et amore omnia vincunt
