The Jowett Society (Friday - Week 7, HT24)

Philosophical Society

Modern physics shows that the intuitive notion of a global "present time" is at odds with experience.  A worldview of reality now existing in the present ("Presentism") is therefore not compatible with current knowledge.  Several philosophers (starting with Putnam) and some physicists have argued that this implies a "block" view of spacetime, where change is illusory ("Eternalism").  I argue that positing the alternative between Presentism and Eternalism is misunderstanding modern physics, which provides a worldview far from either of these alternatives.   I use this textbook case to show that conceptual clarity must follow, not preceed, knowledge, because new knowledge sometimes require a serious conceptual reframing. 

(The presentation will be based on (but expanded upon) the two papers CR, “Neither Presentism nor Eternalism”, Foundations of Physics, 49(12), 1325-1335. arXiv:1910.02474, and CR, "The Old Fisherman's Mistake",  Metaphilosophy 53 (2022) 567-746, http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/18837.) 

Login details for the event are as follows:

https://us05web.zoom.us/j/82181084181?pwd=feoZA5LtaPbXMoXKYDuplZOWqfavCM.1

Meeting ID: 821 8108 4181

Passcode: r2jukq

Please contact Imogen Rivers for any other questions: imogen.rivers@philosophy.ox.ac.uk.


Jowett Society Organising Committee: Imogen Rivers  | Jowett Society Website