Does time pass?
more than one position in time (future, present or past), yet it seems that it would be true to describe event I has having all three characteristics at the same time, meaning that A theory must be incorrect.
This argument, while famous, can be reject ed by A theorists. First, it isn’t true that event I is past, present and future at the same time, rather that I will be past, is present and was future. NowMcTaggart argues that the use of tense to describe time properties (e.g. will be past) simply applies another A series to the existent A series , meaning these new descriptions are also contradictory with one another. However, the real response by A theorists is that McTaggart mistakenly assumes that ‘a proposition that is true at one time is true at all other times’ , 5 (a view known as eternalism and held by most B theorists). Importantly, A theorists reject this view and instead argue for temporalism , ‘according to which propositions change their truth values’. 6 Therefore, it is only at the specific times at which the claims are made that those claims are true. As time passes, the nature of reality changes, and only the claims made at that specific point in time are true. Therefore, there are no contradictions between claims about an event made from different points in time. For A theorists, Mc Taggart’s paradox does not pose a real threat to their beliefs, as McTaggart is simply begging the question for the correctness of externalism over temporalism. However, another assault is still to come for believers in the passage of time, aimed this time at how the passage of time itself can be understood. If A theorists claim that time passes (as they do), then time must pass at a rate. However, if posed the question ‘how quickly does time pass?’ , most modern A theorists would answer that time passes at a rate of one second per second. This claim in itself seems contradictory. While it is true that we can measure time relative to other times – for example, a clock could be accurate to 1ms per year – , meaningful rates must bemeasured in ratios of different quantities. However, what are the two different quantities of seconds which can be measured against one another? By answering that there are two different quantities of seconds, one must concede to an infinite regress of time series, as seconds are compared to seconds to seconds etc. Just as the passage of time is poorly understood, so is its measurement and just because an answer cannot be provided at the present time, doesn’t mean that there is no answer at all. Rather than comprehensively dismantling the A theory , these attacks by B theorists have themselves been disproven. As in the scholarly debates over the topic, this essay has reached a stalemate between the A and B theory . A theory has popular support in that it accounts for characteristics of time which seem intuitive tomost people, specifically the passage of time. On the other hand, assaults by B theorists have pointed out errors in the A theory which at first glance seem damaging, but in reality depend on which side you stand; A or B, for example B theorists would denounce temporalism in favour of eternalism meaning that A theory has failed after all. In the same light, the original question over whether time passes has also entered a stalemate. As this view can only be followed by A theorists, the veracity of the claim ‘time does pass’ lies equally on the arguments for A theory as the theory itself does. This essay hasn’t aimed to provide a comprehensive answer to whether time p asses, merely to outlie a
5 Prosser S. (2018) Experiencing Time . Oxford Prosser, 2018: 15. 6 Ibid.
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