What time travelers may be able to do
Philosophical Studies (forthcoming)
| Abstract | Kadri Vihvelin, in “What time travelers cannot do” (Philos Stud 81:315–330, 1996 ), argued that “no time traveler can kill the baby who in fact is her younger self”, because (V1) “if someone would fail to do something, no matter how hard or how many times she tried, then she cannot do it”, and (V2) if a time traveler tried to kill her baby self, she would always fail. Theodore Sider (Philos Stud 110:115–138, 2002 ) criticized Vihvelin’s argument, and Ira Kiourti (Philos Stud 139:343–352, 2008 ) criticized both Vihvelin’s argument and Sider’s critique. I present a critique of Vihvelin’s argument different from both Sider’s and Kiourti’s critiques: I argue in a novel way that both V1 and V2 are false. Since Vihvelin’s argument might be understood as providing a challenge to the possibility of time travel, if my critique succeeds then time travel survives such a challenge unscathed. | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,631 |
| External links |
  Try with proxy. |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesWilliam Grey (1999). Troubles with Time Travel. Philosophy 74 (1):55-70.
Phil Dowe (2000). The Case for Time Travel. Philosophy 75 (3):441-451.
Steven D. Hales (2010). No Time Travel for Presentists. Logos and Episteme 1 (2):353-360.
Theodore Sider (1997). A New Grandfather Paradox? Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 57 (1):139-144.
Jimmy Alfonso Licon (2011). No Suicide for Presentists. Logos and Episteme 2 (3):455-464.
Kadri Vihvelin (1996). What Time Travelers Cannot Do. Philosophical Studies 81 (2-3):315 - 330.
Nick Smith (2005). Why Would Time Travelers Try to Kill Their Younger Selves? The Monist 88 (3):388-395.
Theodore Sider (2002). Time Travel, Coincidences and Counterfactuals. Philosophical Studies 110 (2):115 - 138.
Ira Kiourti (2008). Killing Baby Suzy. Philosophical Studies 139 (3):343 - 352.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads73 ( #11,350 of 548,973 )Recent downloads (6 months)4 ( #19,222 of 548,973 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
