Conventionalism about time direction
Authors
Publication Date
2022-02-19Journal Title
Synthese
ISSN
0039-7857
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Volume
200
Issue
1
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
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Farr, M. (2022). Conventionalism about time direction. Synthese, 200 (1) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03540-1
Abstract
Abstract: In what sense is the direction of time a matter of convention? In The Direction of Time, Hans Reichenbach makes brief reference to parallels between his views about the status of time’s direction and his conventionalism about geometry. In this article, I: (1) provide a conventionalist account of time direction motivated by a number of Reichenbach’s claims in the book; (2) show how forwards and backwards time can give equivalent descriptions of the world despite the former being the ‘natural’ direction of time; and (3) argue that this offers an important middle-ground position between existing realist and antirealist accounts of the direction of time.
Keywords
Original Research, All Things Reichenbach, Time, Direction of time, Conventionalism, Reichenbach, Past hypothesis
Identifiers
s11229-022-03540-1, 3540
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-022-03540-1
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/335985
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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