The passage of time
Eric Olson argues that the dynamic view of time must be false. It requires that the question ‘How fast does time pass?’ has an answer. But its only possible answer, one second per second, is not an answer. I argue that Olson has failed to identify what is wrong with talk of time’s passage. Then I ar...
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| Format: | Article |
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De Gruyter
2015
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52736/ |
| _version_ | 1848798796781191168 |
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| author | Noonan, Harold W. |
| author_facet | Noonan, Harold W. |
| author_sort | Noonan, Harold W. |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Eric Olson argues that the dynamic view of time must be false. It requires that the question ‘How fast does time pass?’ has an answer. But its only possible answer, one second per second, is not an answer. I argue that Olson has failed to identify what is wrong with talk of time’s passage. Then I argue that, nonetheless, he is right to reject it. To say that time passes is analogous to saying that space is dense, and to ask about the rate of time’s passage is analogous to asking how dense space is. Since the questions are on a par the dynamic view of time, which requires that they are not, is mistaken. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:25:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-52736 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:25:28Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-527362020-05-04T17:08:07Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52736/ The passage of time Noonan, Harold W. Eric Olson argues that the dynamic view of time must be false. It requires that the question ‘How fast does time pass?’ has an answer. But its only possible answer, one second per second, is not an answer. I argue that Olson has failed to identify what is wrong with talk of time’s passage. Then I argue that, nonetheless, he is right to reject it. To say that time passes is analogous to saying that space is dense, and to ask about the rate of time’s passage is analogous to asking how dense space is. Since the questions are on a par the dynamic view of time, which requires that they are not, is mistaken. De Gruyter 2015-05-25 Article PeerReviewed Noonan, Harold W. (2015) The passage of time. Metaphysica, 16 (1). pp. 97-102. ISSN 1874-6373 Time; Passage; Rate; B-theory; Flow https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/mp.2015.16.issue-1/mp-2015-0006/mp-2015-0006.xml doi:10.1515/mp-2015-0006 doi:10.1515/mp-2015-0006 |
| spellingShingle | Time; Passage; Rate; B-theory; Flow Noonan, Harold W. The passage of time |
| title | The passage of time |
| title_full | The passage of time |
| title_fullStr | The passage of time |
| title_full_unstemmed | The passage of time |
| title_short | The passage of time |
| title_sort | passage of time |
| topic | Time; Passage; Rate; B-theory; Flow |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52736/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52736/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52736/ |