(In)determinism, Branching Time, and Branching Space

Abstract

The branching time analysis grounds the possibilities entailed by temporal indeterminism in a branching temporal structure. I construct a spatial analog of the branching time analysis – the branching space analysis – according to which the possibilities entailed by spatial indeterminism are grounded in branching spatial structure. The construction proceeds in such a way as to show the analogies between the branching space and branching time analyses. I argue that the two views are a package. In particular: the theoretical virtues of the one are theoretical virtues of the other and so if one ought to be accepted, then the other should also be accepted. And: if one ought to be denied, then the other ought to be denied as well. Thus, the branching space analysis functions either as a counterexample to the reductive strategy embodied in the branching time analysis or as a reasonable extension of it – as a lesson learned from it.

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Alexander Hughes
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (PhD)

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References found in this work

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Past, present and future.Arthur N. Prior - 1967 - Oxford,: Clarendon P..
What Makes Time Special?Craig Callender - 2017 - Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Philosophy of Physics: Space and Time.Tim Maudlin - 2012 - Princeton University Press.
Future contingents and relative truth.John MacFarlane - 2003 - Philosophical Quarterly 53 (212):321–336.

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