EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATION GEMMA HRYCYK

AN INTRODUCTION
TO THE
PHILOSOPHY OF
TIMEGemma Hrycyk
AN
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
PHILOSOPHY OF
TIMEGEMMA HRYCYK

GEMMA HRYCYK
AN
INTRODUCTION
TO THE
PHILOSOPHY OF
TIME

IS THE MOST
TIME
ARISTOTLE (384 BC – 322 BC)
UNKNOWN OF ALL
UNKNOWN THINGS

Key words to know
Realists - People
who accept the
world as it literally is.
Realists look solely
at facts about the
world rather than
wishes and thoughts
about it.
Objective – Views
which are not
influenced by
personal feelings or
opinions e.g. facts
The Philosophy of Time
The philosophy of time is a captivating topic which summarizes the ongoing debates
between philosophers who attempt to define what time is. The best starting point to most
philosophical challenges is to find out and define what the word means, in this case “time”
itself. In this booklet, the key theories explained show how the challenge in defining time.
The dictionary defines the everyday use of the word “time” as the “indefinite progress of
the existence of events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole.”1
This
definition is the most accepted view of what the ordinary meaning of time is. However
philosophers attempt to challenge the average view, revealing how time is not as simple
as the dictionary definition is. In this booklet you will discover the two most diverse
approaches to time; Eternalism and Presentism as well as learning about McTaggart the
most famous philosopher to challenge our perception of what time is. From these
contrasting views, the way you think about what time really is may change.
McTaggart’s Theories on Time
This section on McTaggart and his theories are directly edited,
paraphrased and quoted from an online video. 2
John Ellis McTaggart (1866-1925) was an English philosopher who
is most famously associated with his theory of time. He wrote in
1900 a 2,000 page book called “The Nature of Existence”. The book
describes how he does not believe in the concept of time at all.
‘However, he explained that if individuals are going to try to make
sense of the notion of time and are going to defend it as an objective
feature of our world, there are two beliefs about time which must be
understood.’ He illustrates these views through two theories. ‘Both
theories state that time is a way of events to be logically ordered.
Realists also agree that time is a way of ordering; however
philosophers views conflict over what that order consists of.’ The two most famous
theories that McTaggart constructed are called the A theory and the B theory.
About John Ellis McTaggart
McTaggart was an English Philosopher who was born on the 3rd
of September 1866. From a young age he was interested in
questioning the ideas of others. He became an atheist and
challenged the concept of God. As he grew into his adult years,
he became interested in the world of metaphysics. His passion
for challenging basic assumptions about the world and human
existence resulted in him writing his first book in 1900 called
“The Nature of Existence”. He wrote other books later on such
as “The Unreality of Time” which he became famously known for.
He died on 18th
of January 1925 due to a circulatory disease.1

Key words to
know
Relative – Views
which are not set
in stone due to
ideas being
subjective
interpretations.
McTaggart’s A Theory
‘The A theory of time is also referred to as the “tensed theory of time”.
A theorists believe that the nature of time is that events are ordered
into the past, the present or the future.’ For example, Halloween 2018
is in the future, but when we get to the year of 2018 it will be in the
present, and then once it is over, Halloween 2018 will be in the past. “It
is an objective fact according to this theory that some events in the
future have not yet happened, but will happen soon. Other events are in
the present, the “objective now”, just as other events have been in the
present and now are in the past.” Therefore the A theorist believes that
the past, the present and the future are ‘not relative but are an
objective fact about the universe meaning that some events are now in its past and some
events are in its future. ‘
“The division of events into past, present and future constitute
a series which McTaggart coined the “A series”. According to
the A series the order of which time consists in is the ordering
of events in the past, present and future.” This concludes
McTaggart’s first theory.
McTaggart's B Theory
McTaggart also writes about the second view of time
called the B theory, also referred to as the “de-tensed
theory of time”. According to B theorists, time exists as
an objective fact that some events are earlier than
others, some events are later than others, and other
events are simultaneous with one another.3
‘B theorists
believe there is no objective now which moves along,
the B theorist will admit there are some events which
are past compared to other events and other events are
future compared to another event, but they do not
believe that there I such concepts as the objective past
or objective future. B theorists think of time as a static
line with events all spread out equally along it.’ The line
is similar to a timeline record of historical events. “B
theorists believe that the division of events earlier, later
and simultaneous constitute a series called the B
series.”

Key words to
know
Dynamic
language – An
object being
described as
having some sort
of movement
property e.g.
“Flow”, “Time
passes”
Temporal Idioms –
the use of an
unusual set of
words to describe
something. In this
context the
feeling of time;
“Time flowing”
“Time passing”
What is the difference?
What is the difference between McTaggart’s A series and B series? What is the difference
between separating events into the past, present and future and describing events as
later as and earlier than one another? The difference is that an event can change its
position in the A series but events in the B series don’t change their position as they are
simply described as either earlier in relation to other events or later in relation to other
events.
‘For example if today someone asked you about the tense in
which Christmas in 2013 is described, you would say that it
is now in the past. However Christmas in 2013 was once in
the present and before it was in the present it was in the
future. People living in 2012 who asked the same question
would have said that “Christmas 2013 is in the future”.’
Evidently in this example it shows how an event is able to
change its position in what tense the event fits into. ‘This
would be the same for Christmas in 2090 today, it exists in
our concept of the future but someday it will be in the
present, and after Christmas in 2090 is over it will be in the
past. Events are constantly moving from future into the
present and into the past in the A series. It is in this way that
the A theorist describes time as “flowing” and how time
“passes”. It is a very common way of thinking about time.’
Many people often ascribe dynamic
language to explain time. If you were
to describe how time “feels” it could
be said that time “flies when you are
having fun”. ‘Dynamic language
suggests a type of movement.
Aristotle believed the world “has a
basic temporal structure”4
and he
believed that this language when
describing time, albeit metaphorical,
suggests that if time could literally fly,
at what rate would it flow at? Many
Philosophers have been curious to
find out if anything can be the literal
content into our temporal idioms like
“time flows” or “time passes”.’
The A theorist believes that when
people say “time flows” they are
describing how events can flow from
tense to tense seamlessly. In other words, events move continuously
from tense to tense as a “flowing movement”.

This is however different to the B theorists
view who believe that events are either
earlier or later when compared with one
another. B theorists do not believe in tenses
for events. ‘Therefore Christmas 2013 and
Christmas in 2090 cannot be described
respectively as being in the past or in the
future but rather describing that the event of
Christmas 2013 sits earlier on a timeline
compared to Christmas 2015 and a lot earlier
compared to Christmas 2090. Therefore for
the B theorists the event simply sits either
later or earlier compared to other events.
None of these relations change the position of
the event as Christmas 2013 will always be
earlier compared to Christmas in 2090 – this
will never change no matter how much time
“passes”.’
‘The B series is describes a “static form of events that is put into a certain order”; events
can never alter or change in this series, whereas they can in the A series – this explains
why being in the B series is very different to the A series.’
The Unreality of Time
This section on McTaggart and his theories are directly edited, paraphrased and quoted
from the second online video.5
Even though McTaggart was the creator of both the A theory and the B theory, his
conclusion, surprisingly, was that time cannot exist at all. He expresses this argument in
his most famous book “The Unreality of Time” written in 1908 and explains that ‘both
series are incoherent and are not accurate explanations of the nature of time. He argues
ultimately that if time cannot be explained by either the A series or the B series then time
cannot exist at all.’ Here is the basic overview of his argument.6

Key words
to know
Tenselessly
– The idea
that an
event will
happen in a
tense. E.g.
the past.
1. “If time is real then either the A series or the B series accurately describes
time as we know it.”
2. But if the B theory is true, no event can ever change, and there can be no
change.
a. “If the B theory accurately represents time then no fact about any
object can change” (as the event is static and cannot move from
future to present to past.)
b. “If no fact about any object can change, nothing can ever change.”
“If the death of Queen Anne occurs in 1714, then it (tenselessy)
always occurs in 1714.”1
c. “So if the B series is accurate then nothing can change” and
everything is static.
3. “If nothing ever really changes, time cannot be real”, McTaggart believed
change must “genuine change if time is real.
4. So if B theory is true, time is not real.
5. But if the A theory is true a contradiction follows:
a. The properties of being present, being past, and being future, are
incompatible, nothing can have all three.
b. However, suppose event X is present. This means event X was future
and will be past.
c. The properties of being past, being present, and being future are all
ascribed to X.
d. But now we have a contradiction, no event can be past, present and
future but X is!
6. ‘This contradiction cannot be true if the A theory works.
7. But the contradiction is valid.’
8. “So the A theory cannot be true.
9. So neither the A theory or the B theory can accurately describe time.
10. Therefore time is not real!”
McTaggart’s Argument against the theory of time

Key words to
know
Regress –
When a step in
a theory stunts
the theory
from
progressing.
This could be
to a
contradiction
in the theory.
He concluded that if we begin thinking time flows, and events move from future to present
to past (A series) then when we are asked to describe when they happen in relation to one
another we have to ascribe a position to where they happened and therefore we begin to
use B series. If we describe the event as happening earlier or later in relation to another
event we are putting them into a fixed time line order.
Therefore, we lose the whole concept of events moving in time and being
able to change and we end up with a static line of events. McTaggart
believes that because of this, the notion of time is destroyed as he believes
if the dynamic features cannot be understood and if we try to understand
any movement of time it only ends with a regress. He closes his argument
by saying therefore time cannot exist at all. Ultimately McTaggart’s
“argument is designed principally to show that the notion of the A- series
gives rise to a contradiction and the B-series cannot give us time” due to it
being static. Therefore it is up to you to agree with McTaggart’s
conclusion that time does not exist, or to take from it that issues in this
argument need to be resolved “before you can arrive at a correct
understanding of the nature of time.”7
The Presentist and the Eternalist
Two of the most diverse ways of digesting the meaning of time is through the views of
Presentism and Eternalism. They sit at either side of a spectrum when it comes to time.
Presentism
“Presentism is the doctrine that only the present is real.”8
The Presentist believes nothing
exists unless it is in the present. Therefore if an individual made a list of all the objects
which were in this present moment, the conclusion would be that all the objects exist. But
things such as Hitler or Dinosaurs wouldn’t exist as they lie in the past. The Presentist
rejects the existence of the other tenses (past and future). However, saying these things
don’t exist cause some to argue that they have once existed and therefore do exist in past
memory form. The response from the Presentist is that, it is incompatible to say
something did exist as it is relying on the past tense which they don’t believe exists. If the
object does not exist in the present tense it does not exist at all.
Arthur Prior (1914-1969) is a philosopher who agrees with
presentism. His argument looks into how using the word
“present” as a property to describe an existing event does not
add any new information to it. For example, “saying “I am present
in this room, adds no new information to this statement, since all
things which exist are present.”9
His conclusion is that if the
property “present” adds nothing to things which exist, it proves
that only what exists can exist presently.

Key words to
know
Intuitive – When
individuals use
their instinctive
consciousness.
Intuition does
not include
education or
knowledge
taught to an
individual
Instantaneous –
For something
to instantly be
completed.
Another philosopher who believes in presentism is St Augustine
(354-430 AD) who arrived at the “radical conclusion that past
and future exist only in the mind”.10
He suggests, only the
present is real, the other tenses are a real illusion.
Buddhism encourages individuals to focus on the present.
Fyodor Scherbatskoy wrote: “Everything past is unreal,
everything future is unreal, everything imagined, absent,
mental…is unreal…ultimately real is the only present
moment…”11
However, many issues arise from saying only the present exists. One
of the most famous arguments against presentism is called the
Grounding Objection argument. To make this argument we have to
first assume two things, both of which are intuitive. Firstly we must
assume we can make true statements about the past and the future.
For instance “the fire of London was in 1666” – this statement is true.
Secondly, we have to assume the truth depends on what exists such as
“Dandelions are yellow” because there exists something called a
Dandelion which has the property of being yellow. This statement is
much like saying “There are no flying pigs” both of which we know are
true. This is known as when “truth supervenes on existence”.
Presentism seems to be incompatible with both these assumptions
because if the past and future do not exist then we cannot make true
statements about them at all. We could not say that dandelions were
yellow unless we have seen a dandelion in the past being yellow.
Saying last year’s dandelions were yellow is no truer than saying all
pigs could fly last summer if we take a Presentist approach. Without
any idea of the past and future it is difficult to grasp any sort of rational
present thought. This is a huge flaw in the presentist’s view of time.
The present is a moment in time which must be so small that is it instantaneous. The
present cannot be extended because if it had any length, the property of 'pastness’ and
'futureness' could be applied which is incompatible to presentism as it would mean the
earlier part would be the future and the later part of the length would be past, which
cannot happen in a presentists view. Therefore, everything must exist all at the same time.
Everything must exist simultaneously because there is no other time that anything could
exist.

Key words to know
Special Relativity - A
theory created by
Albert Einstein, that
all motion must be
defined relative to
where an individual
views the motion
from and that space
and time are
relative, rather than
absolute concepts.
The problem with this is that for many thinkers, special
relativity tells us that there is no such thing as
simultaneity. Special relativity is basically a theory
created by Albert Einstein (1879-1955) which explains
how the speed at which we move determines the feeling
of the speed of time. Presentism is completely
incompatible with special relativity and many
philosophers would argue against presentism. If events
had to happen all at the same time all in the present
moment, an individual would be incorrect to describe
the length of time, as there would be no such thing as
time having any length.
This is developed further through special
relativity as time relies on how the individual
views it. For instance a car speeding past a
cyclist would view time as going fast, as they
travel at 40 mph, whereas the slow cyclist
would view the time period of the car
approaching and passing much slower as
they are only travelling at 10 mph.
Eternalism
In contrast to presentism, another theory of what time is that of Eternalism. Eternalists
believe that all tenses exist equally. In other words, the past, the present and the future all
exist as equal sections of time. They believe “that there are events existent at other times
that are equally real.”12
For example the Eternalist would believe that
dinosaurs exist because they exist in the past, that we
exist now, reading this very line, and exist in the
present, and that a holiday in space is something
which exists in the future tense. These three events
are all accepted to exist equally with each another.

With the Eternalist assumption comes some flaws. We all
know dinosaurs did once exist, and they exist in the past,
however saying they exist in the past is also suggesting they
don’t exist now. Therefore, the Eternalist view becomes very
muddled when it attempts to explain how the tenses can exist
even though they cannot physically ever exist unless they are
in the present, which is incompatible if they have admitted
that the tenses do exist. The Presentist would argue that if
we cannot prove that an object in the past exists due to it no
longer existing in the present then we have to assume it
doesn’t exist as all.
The Eternalist has many similarities to McTaggart’s B-series
as they believe “the world is static in two senses: events that
exist do not change, and there is no sense in which the
present moves.”13
For example the event of Kennedy being shot is later than the
Dinosaurs. Therefore to say dinosaurs exist in the past is just as accurate as saying
robots will exist in the future.
The issue which comes from believing all the tenses are
equal is that most people believe that the present holds
more value. You cannot relive the past, you cannot
experiences the future until it is in the present – therefore
many people and specifically presentists would argue
that the present is the only real tense, as any other tense
cannot be experienced, and if it cannot be experienced, it
cannot be proved as being real.
The diverse theories presented in this booklet challenge
the existence of the tenses and how they are then
ordered to create the notion of time. All the theories
outlined in this booklet have obvious flaws. The issues the
theories face illustrate how complex time truly is. It is
evident that the definition of time is not as simple as you
may have at first thought.
This booklet has shown you the most diverse approaches to the philosophy of time. If you
are interested in exploring further into the philosophy of time, here are some topics worth
researching:
 The moving spotlight theory14
 The growing block theory15
 The religious view of time16
17

What do you think time is? How would
you explain what the notion of time was
and how it operated?
Many philosophers have spent years
challenging the everyday concept of
time, and from their studies they have
constructed complex ideas of what time
is in their opinion.
In this booklet, you will discover how the
concept of time is not as simple as the
dictionary definition. From the most
opposite views within the philosophy of
time you will become aware of how
puzzling the notion of time truly is.

Bibliography
1
Oxford University Press, (1982) The Concise Oxford dictionary, 7th edn., New York, United
States: Oxford University Press.
2
YouTube, (2016). McTaggart on Time (Part 1/2). [online] Available at: http://bit.ly/1Sa3ixh
[Accessed 23 Jan. 2016].
3
Geach, P. T.(1979) ‘Truth, Love, and Immortality’, Berkeley: University of California Press.pp 89.
4
Whitrow, G. (1961) ‘The Natural Philosophy of Time’. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press,
pp.1-3
5
YouTube, (2016). McTaggart on Time (Part 2/2). [online] Available at: http://bit.ly/1Pkgb1A
6
Glendinning, S. (1999) 'W.J Mander', The Edinburgh Encyclopaedia of Continental
Philosophy, (1579581528, 9781579581527), pp. 96-98 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1PpAlxi
(Accessed: 2nd November 2015).
7
Schlesinger, N.G. (1980) 'McTaggart and his Commentators on the unreality of Time',Aspects of
Time, (), pp. 41-42 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1nFOycY (Accessed: 19th
November 2015).
8
Leininger, J.L. (2007) 'A Defense of Classical Eternalism', The Special Theory of Relativity and
the Problem of Temporary Intrinsics, (), pp. 8 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1nfF6fS (Accessed:
14th October 2015).
9
Woolfe, S., (2013) Presentism and Eternalism: Two Philosophical Theories about Time, Available
at: http://bit.ly/1SaWzBP (Accessed: 2015).
10
Poidevin, L.R. (2011) 'The Experience and Perception of Time', Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy, Fall Volume(1095-5054), pp. 3-5.
11
Woolfe, S., (2013) Presentism and Eternalism: Two Philosophical Theories about
Time, Available at: http://bit.ly/1SaWzBP (Accessed: 21st November 2015).
12
Harold W.N. (2013) 'Presentism and Eternalism', Erkenntnis, 78(1), pp. 1 [Online]. Available
at: http://bit.ly/1nFOHgF (Accessed: 1st September 2015).
13
Miller, K (2013) 'Presentism, Eternalism and the Growing Block', A Companion to the
Philosophy of Time, (), pp. 347 [Online]. Available at: http://bit.ly/1QkLLzs (Accessed: 2nd July
2015).
14
Skow, B. (2009). Relativity and the Moving Spotlight. Journal of Philosophy, 106(12), pp.666-
678.
15
Sider, T. (2016). The Growing Block. [online] www.tedsider.org. Available at:
http://bit.ly/1PL6gCt [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016].
16
Helm, P. (2006). Eternity. [online] Plato.stanford.edu. Available at: http://stanford.io/1WDOxCf
17
Buckingham, W. (2011). The philosophy book. London: DK Pub.

EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATION GEMMA HRYCYK

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