A Brief History of Philosophy of Time

Description

This thoroughly revised and updated edition of Adrian Bardon's A Brief History of the Philosophy of Time is a short introduction to the history, philosophy, and science of the study of time--from the pre-Socratic philosophers through Einstein and beyond.
Bardon covers subjects such as time and change, the experience of time, physical and metaphysical approaches to the nature of time, the direction of time, time travel, time and freedom of the will, and scientific and philosophical approaches to cosmology and the beginning of time. He employs helpful illustrations and keeps technical language to a minimum in bringing the resources of over 2500 years of philosophy and science to bear on some of humanity's most fundamental and enduring questions.

Adrian Bardon is Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University, where he teaches courses on the philosophy of time and the history of philosophy. He is the author of The Truth About Denial: Bias and Self-Deception in Science, Politics, and Religion (Oxford University Press, 2020). He is the editor of The Future of the Philosophy of Time (Routledge, 2012), co-editor of A Companion to the Philosophy of Time (Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), and co-editor of The Illusions of Time: Philosophical and Psychological Essays on Timing and Time Perception (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: What Does It Mean to Ask, "What Is Time?"
1. Time and Change
2. Idealism and Experience
3. Time and Spacetime
4. Does Time Pass?
5. The Persistent Projection of Passage
6. The Arrow of Time
7. Is Time Travel Possible?
8. Time and Freedom
9. The Beginning of Time
Epilogue: Is "What Is Time?" The Wrong Question?

Suggestions For Further Reading