Past, present and future modally introduced.

We investigate the concepts of past, present, and future that build upon a modal distinction between a settled past and an open future. The concepts are defined in terms of a pre-causal ordering that is determined by the qualitative differences between alternative possible histories. We look what an...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 198; no. 4; pp. 3603 - 3625
Autor principal: Placek, Tomasz
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Apr2021
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:We investigate the concepts of past, present, and future that build upon a modal distinction between a settled past and an open future. The concepts are defined in terms of a pre-causal ordering that is determined by the qualitative differences between alternative possible histories. We look what an event's past, present, and future look like in the so-called Minkowskian Branching Structures, one in which histories are isomorphic to Minkowski space-time.