Metaphysics and Epistemology Group (Tuesday - Week 6, HT23)

I am interested in the philosophical implications of analysing “(metaphysically) possible world” and “(moment of) time” in irreducibly higher-order terms. In this paper, I describe a recent higher-order analysis of “possible world” due to Dorr & Hawthorne with Yli-Vakkuri (2021), and then describe an analogous analysis of “time”. I then discuss a consequence of this latter analysis to the effect that there must be a time, and therefore there cannot be a 'timeless' world (as some have argued). I finish by considering some objections.