Temporal Reality
Temporal Reality
This chapter elaborates on how the concept of time is an inescapable part of the world. Metaphysically speaking, understanding time means understanding the shared world that man encounters and with which man interacts. This world is unavoidably a temporal world, and man must deal with time whether he wishes to or not. The ontology of time is currently dominated by two theories: presentism, which posits that the only real objects are the currently existing ones; and eternalism, which posits that currently existing objects and times are as real as past and future ones. This chapter discusses the reason why both theories are insufficient and aims to develop a manner of understanding time that is adequate to both physics and human experience.
Keywords: ontology of time, shared world, temporal world, presentism, eternalism, physics
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