The Growing-Block: just one thing after another?

In this article, we consider two independently appealing theories-the Growing-Block view and Humean Supervenience-and argue that at least one is false. The Growing-Block view is a theory about the nature of time. It says that (a) past and present things exist, while future things do not, and (b) the...

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Published in:Philosophical Studies Vol. 174; no. 4; pp. 927 - 944
Main Authors: Briggs, Rachael, Forbes, Graeme
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Apr2017
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
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        atl: The Growing-Block: just one thing after another?
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          Briggs, Rachael
          Forbes, Graeme
        affil:
          Stanford University , 450 Serra Mall, Main Quad, Building 90 Stanford 94305 USA
          School of European Culture and Languages , University of Kent , Canterbury, Kent CT2 7NF UK
      su:
        Philosophical analysis
        Comprehension (Theory of knowledge)
        Philosophy of time
        Human acts (Ethics)
        Causation (Philosophy)
        Chance
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        subj:
          Philosophical analysis
          Comprehension (Theory of knowledge)
          Philosophy of time
          Human acts (Ethics)
          Causation (Philosophy)
          Chance
      keyword:
        A theories
        Best-system analysis
        Growing block theory
        Humean supervenience
      ab: In this article, we consider two independently appealing theories-the Growing-Block view and Humean Supervenience-and argue that at least one is false. The Growing-Block view is a theory about the nature of time. It says that (a) past and present things exist, while future things do not, and (b) the passage of time consists in new things coming into existence. Humean Supervenience is a theory about the nature of entities like laws, nomological possibility, counterfactuals, dispositions, causation, and chance. It says that none of these entities are fundamental, since if they were, this would entail the existence of irreducible necessary connections between matters of fact. Instead, these entities supervene on a fundamental, non-nomological 'Humean mosaic' of property instances at spacetime points. We will further explain and motivate the Growing-Block view and Humean Supervenience in Sects. 2 and 3, but first, we turn to our master argument.
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