Conclusion
We must conclude, from the above discussion, that Putnam has not satisfactorily explained how a person can go back in time and thus has not offered any compelling reason why we should accept his description of Oscar rather than his objector's description. However, earlier in our discussion, a possible way to show that Oscar did go back in time came to light: namely, if it could be shown that Oscar2 was at B at t 1 because Oscar1 entered the time machine at t 2. Thus, if backward causation were possible, such backward causes could be used to send a person back in time. But whether backward causation is a conceptual possibility or not is the topic for another paper.
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Earman, J., ‘On Going Backwards in Time’, Philosophy of Science 34 (1967), 211–22.
Feynman, R. P., Theory of Fundamental Processes, W. A. Benjamin, New York, 1962.
Graves, J. C. and Roper, J. E., ‘Measuring Measuring Rods’, Philosophy of Science 32 (1965), 39–55.
Putnam, H., ‘It Ain't Necessarily So’, Journal of Philosophy 59 (1962), 658–71.
Reichenbach, H., The Philosophy of Space and Time, Dover, New York, 1958.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Weingard, R. On travelling backward in time. Synthese 24, 117–132 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00540145
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00540145