Introducing Time
Craig Callender and Ralph Edney
Hypothetical Table of Contents[§]
I. What
is Time? (28 pp.)
1.
What is Time? 3
2.
All Kinds of
Clocks 4
3.
Biological Clocks 6
4.
Psychological
Time 8
5.
Is Time Merely in
the Head? 10
6.
Clocks and Time 12
7.
How Long is an Interval of Time? 14
8.
The Most Reliable
Clocks 16
9.
The Atomic Clock 17
10.
Absolute, True
and Mathematical Time 18
11.
True Time 20
12.
Opponents of
Newtonian Time: Relationalism 22
13.
A Scenario of
Time without Change 24
14.
Can Relationalism replace Absolute Time? 26
15.
Conventionalism 28
16.
A Universe Out of
Sync? 30
II. Tenseless vs. Tensed Theories of Time (19 pp.)
17.
The Nature of
Time: Relative and Nonrelative 32
18.
Tenseless and Tensed Theories of Time 33
19.
Tensed Time 34
20.
Tenseless Time 37
21.
Representing
Dimensions 38
22.
The Fourth or
Time Dimension 39
23.
Diagrams of Space
and Time 40
24.
Picture of a “Tenseless” Life 42
25.
The Now and the
Here 43
26.
The Problem of
Motion and Change 44
27.
McTaggart’s Argument 46
28.
Avoiding McTaggart’s Trap 48
29.
How Fast Does
Time Flow? 50
III. Frames
of Reference (15 pp.)
30.
Galilean
Relativity 52
31.
Frames of
Reference 54
32.
Einstein’s
Relativity 56
33.
Simultaneity is
Relative to the Observer 58
34.
The Spacetime Event 61
35.
Lightcones 62
36.
Time and Observer
Dependency 64
37.
Relativity and
Tenses 66
IV. Time
Travel-Part 1 (20 pp.)
38.
Does Logic Allow
Time Travel? 68
39.
The Logic of
Impossibility 70
40.
The Book That No
One Wrote 72
41.
The Causal Loop 74
42.
A Logical
Contradiction of Time Travel 76
43.
Logical
Contradictions Cannot Occur 78
44.
Personal Time 80
45.
Dying at a Time
Earlier Than Your Birth 81
46.
Future
Compatibility 83
47.
Can We Change the
Past? 84
48.
Can We Affect the
Past? 85
49.
Two Sorts of Time
Travel Stories 86
V. Time
Travel-Part 2 (28 pp.)
50.
Does Physics
Allow Time Travel? 89
51.
Moving Clocks Run
Slower 90
52.
Small Savings in
Time 92
53.
General
Relativity and Four-dimensional Curvature 94
54.
Why We Don’t Need
a Fifth Dimension 96
55.
Spacetime Curvature 97
56.
General
Relativity and Time Travel 98
57.
Gödel’s Rotating
Universe 100
58.
Spacetime in a Rotating Universe 102
59.
The Effect of Spacetime Curvature 104
60.
Taub-NUT-Misner Spacetime 106
61.
Gödel’s Complete Spacetime Travel 107
62.
Is Gödelian Time Travel Possible? 108
63.
Gödel Against
Tenses 109
64.
Another Problem
for the Tensed Theory 110
65.
Was Gödel Wrong? 112
66.
Cosmic String
Theory 114
67.
Wormholes in Spacetime 115
68.
Wormholes May Not
Allow Travel 116
VI. General
Relativity and Cosmology (14 pp.)
69.
Exotic
Possibilities for Time 118
70.
Möbius Twist in Space 120
71.
Möbius Twist in Time 121
72.
Branching Time 122
73.
Does Space “Run
Out?” 123
74.
Finite Space
Without Limit 124
75.
Geroch’s Theorem 126
76.
Eternal
Recurrence 127
77.
Travelling to Big Bang 128
78.
A Philosophical
Objection 130
79.
Closed and Open
Time 131
VII. The
Direction of Time (31 pp.)
80.
To Sum Up, So
Far . . . 132
81.
The Direction of
Time 133
82.
“Irreversible” Processes 134
83.
Time Reversal
Invariance 135
84.
Seeing in Terms
of Particles 136
85.
The Science of
Heat 138
86.
Spontaneous
Processes 140
87.
The Law of
Entropy 141
88.
The Problem of
Newtonian Particles, Again 142
89.
Statistical
Mechanics 143
90.
A Statistical
Asymmetry 144
91.
Is Reversal
Probable? 146
92.
The Most Probable
State of Entropy 148
93.
The Loschmidt Paradox 149
94.
In What Direction
Does Entropy Increase? 150
95.
The Universe’s
Statistical Development 152
96.
The Boundary
Conditions of the Universe 154
97.
An Unlikely
Hypothesis 156
98.
Why Does Entropy
Really Increase? 157
99.
The “Temporal
Double Standard” 158
100.
A Reversal of
Time’s Arrow 160
101.
Communication
with the Time Reversed? 161
102.
Time-reversed
Communication 162
VIII. No
Time: Quantum Gravity vs. General
Relativity (6 pp.)
103.
Quantum
Gravity: The End of Time? 164
104.
The
Wheeler-DeWitt Equation 165
105.
Rounding-up of
Positions 166
106.
The Perfect or
“Master” Clock 167
107.
The Inexistence
of Time 168
108.
A Better-known
Mystery 169