Time Travel and the Immutability of the Past within B-Theoretical Models

Philosophia 47 (4):1011-1021 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to defend the general tenet that time travelers cannot change the past within B-theoretical models of time, independently of how many temporal dimensions there are. Baron Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98, 129–147 offered a strong argument intended to reach this general conclusion. However, his argument does not cover a peculiar case, i.e. a B-theoretical one-dimensional model of time that allows for the presence of internal times. Loss Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 96, 1–11 used the latter model to argue that time travelers can change the past within such model. We show a way to debunk Loss’s argument, so that the general tenet about the impossibility of changing the past within B-theoretical models is maintained.

Other Versions

No versions found

Similar books and articles

Back to the Unchanging Past.Sam Baron - 2017 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (1):129-147.
How to Change the Past in One-Dimensional Time.Roberto Loss - 2015 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 96 (1):1-11.
Back to the (Branching) Future.Giacomo Andreoletti - 2020 - Acta Analytica 35 (2):181-194.
Why Time Travellers (Still) Cannot Change the Past.Nicholas J. J. Smith - 2015 - Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia 71 (70th Anniversary Issue on Metaph):677-94.
How to Know That Time Travel Is Unlikely Without Knowing Why.Katrina Elliott - 2018 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 100 (1):90-113.
Is There Change on the B-theory of Time?Luca Banfi - 2021 - European Journal of Analytic Philosophy 17 (1):(B1)5-28.
Avoiding or changing the past.G. C. Goddu - 2011 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 92 (1):11-17.

Analytics

Added to PP
n/a

Downloads
796 (#26,273)

6 months
99 (#58,453)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

Giacomo Andreoletti
University of Salzburg
Giuliano Torrengo
Università degli Studi di Milano

Citations of this work

The Great Loop: From Conformal Cyclic Cosmology to Aeon Monism.Baptiste Le Bihan - 2024 - Journal for General Philosophy of Science / Zeitschrift für Allgemeine Wissenschaftstheorie 1:1-16.
Paradoxes of Time Travel to the Future.Sara Bernstein - 2022 - In Helen Beebee & A. R. J. Fisher (eds.), Perspectives on the Philosophy of David K. Lewis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Backwards Causation in Social Institutions.Kenneth Silver - 2024 - Erkenntnis 89 (5):1973-1991.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Paradoxes of Time Travel.David Lewis - 1976 - American Philosophical Quarterly 13 (2):145-152.
Paradoxes of Time Travel.Ryan Wasserman - 2017 - Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
The Paradoxes of Time Travel.David Lewis - 2004 - In Tim Crane & Katalin Farkas (eds.), Metaphysics: a guide and anthology. New York: Oxford University Press.
The structure of time.W. Newton-Smith - 1980 - Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Changing the Past.Peter Van Inwagen - 2010 - Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 5:3-40.

View all 16 references / Add more references