On A- and B-theoretic elements of branching spacetimes.
This paper assesses branching spacetime theories in light of metaphysical considerations concerning time. I present the A, B, and C series in terms of the temporal structure they impose on sets of events, and raise problems for two elements of extant branching spacetime theories-McCall's 'branch att...
| Published in: | Synthese Vol. 188; no. 1; pp. 85 - 117 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Springer Nature
Sep2012
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=82067502&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 82067502 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00397857 4LI jtl: Synthese issn: 00397857 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Sep2012 vid: 188 iid: 1 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 82067502 10.1007/s11229-011-0046-y ppf: 85 ppct: 32 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 498KB tig: atl: On A- and B-theoretic elements of branching spacetimes. aug: au: Farr, Matt affil: Department of Philosophy, University of Bristol, 43 Woodland Road Bristol BS8 1UU UK su: Indeterminism (Philosophy) Justification (Theory of knowledge) Branching processes Metaphysics Philosophy of time Presupposition (Logic) sug: subj: Indeterminism (Philosophy) Justification (Theory of knowledge) Branching processes Metaphysics Philosophy of time Presupposition (Logic) keyword: A series B series Branch attrition Branching time BST C series Direction of time Indeterminism Open future Supertime ab: This paper assesses branching spacetime theories in light of metaphysical considerations concerning time. I present the A, B, and C series in terms of the temporal structure they impose on sets of events, and raise problems for two elements of extant branching spacetime theories-McCall's 'branch attrition', and the 'no backward branching' feature of Belnap's 'branching space-time'-in terms of their respective A- and B-theoretic nature. I argue that McCall's presentation of branch attrition can only be coherently formulated on a model with at least two temporal dimensions, and that this results in severing the link between branch attrition and the flow of time. I argue that 'no backward branching' prohibits Belnap's theory from capturing the modal content of indeterministic physical theories, and results in it ascribing to the world a time-asymmetric modal structure that lacks physical justification. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Synthese is a copyright of Springer, 2012. All Rights Reserved. item: Synthese holder: Springer Nature dt: @attributes: year: 2012 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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