Objective Becoming

Abstract Does time pass? This book takes up this central question of metaphysics and defends the "block universe" theory of time, often said to be a theory according to which time does not pass. Since this can be a misleading thing to say a distinction is drawn between "anemic" passage of time and "robust" passage of time; the thesis of the book is that there is no robust passage of time, or "objective becoming." There are in-depth discussions of alternative theories of time, some of which are theories of robust passage: presentism, the moving spotlight theory of time, the growing block theory of time, and the "branching time" theory of time. Chapters 2 through 5 argue that the moving spotlight theory is the best of these. Chapters 6 argues, contra McTaggart and many others, that the moving spotlight theory is consistent, and Chapter 7 argues that it has no trouble saying how fast time passes. Chapters 8 and 9 show how the moving spotlight theory may be made consistent with the special theory of relativity. Chapter 10 discusses whether sense can be made of the idea that we move through time. Finally, Chapters 11 and 12 take up the question whether our "experience of the passage of time" constitutes evidence that favors the moving spotlight theory over the block universe theory of time. Three different arguments from temporal experience are isolated and discussed separately; all are found to fail.