Eternalism (philosophy of time)

Illustration of the concept of eternalism, showing a man walking his dog. Time progresses through the series of snapshots from the bottom of the page to the top. In a common sense view of time, each of those four instants would exist one after another. According to eternalism, those four instants all equally exist.

In the philosophy of space and time, eternalism[1] is an approach to the ontological nature of time, which takes the view that all existence in time is equally real, as opposed to presentism or the growing block universe theory of time, in which at least the future is not the same as any other time.[2] Some forms of eternalism give time a similar ontology to that of space, as a dimension, with different times being as real as different places, and future events are "already there" in the same sense other places are already there, and that there is no objective flow of time.[3]

It is sometimes referred to as the "block time" or "block universe" theory due to its description of space-time as an unchanging four-dimensional "block", as opposed to the view of the world as a three-dimensional space modulated by the passage of time.

  1. ^ Le Bihan, Baptiste (2020). "String theory, loop quantum gravity and eternalism". European Journal for Philosophy of Science. 10 (2): 17. arXiv:2005.09335. doi:10.1007/s13194-020-0275-3. S2CID 210958803.
  2. ^ Kuipers, Theo A.F. (2007). General Philosophy of Science: Focal Issues. North Holland. p. 326. ISBN 978-0-444-51548-3.
  3. ^ Tim Maudlin (2010), "On the Passing of Time", The Metaphysics Within Physics, Oxford University Press, ISBN 9780199575374