Time and Space

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McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2001 - Philosophy - 386 pages
These are just some of the fundamental questions addressed in Time and Space. Writing for a primary readership of advanced undergraduate and graduate philosophy students, Barry Dainton introduces the central ideas and arguments that make space and time such philosophically challenging topics. Although recognising that many issues in the philosophy of time and space involve technical features of physics, Dainton has been careful to keep the conceptual issues accessible to students with little scientific or mathematical training. Surveying historical debates and ideas at the forefront of contemporary thinking, the book is unrivaled in its coverage. Topics include McTaggart's argument for the unreality of change; static, tensed, and dynamic time; time travel and causal arrows; space as void, motion, and curved spac; as well as a non-technical introduction to the special theory of relativity and the key features of general relativity, spacetime, and strings. Dainton also addresses the relationship between the philosophy of time and broader human concerns involving actions, ethics, fatalism, and death.

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Contents

McTaggart on times unreality
13
Static time
27
Asymmetries within time
44
Tensed time
63
Time and consciousness
93
Time travel
110
Conceptions of void
132
the classical debate
151
Spatial antirealism
232
Special relativity
254
Relativity and reality
269
General relativity
284
Spacetime metaphysics
301
Strings
320
Notes
335
Glossary
349

Absolute motion
169
Motion in spacetime
181
Curved space
200
Tangible space
220
Web resources
367
Index
377
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