Skeptical notes on a physics of passage
Open accessAbstract
This paper investigates the mathematical representation of time in physics. In existing theories, time is represented by the real numbers, hence their formal properties represent properties of time: these are surveyed. The central question of the paper is whether the existing representation of time is adequate, or whether it can or should be supplemented: especially, do we need a physics incorporating some kind of “dynamical passage” of time? The paper argues that the existing mathematical framework is resistant to such changes, and might have to be rejected by anyone seeking a physics of passage. Then it rebuts two common arguments for incorporating passage into physics, especially the claim that it is an element of experience. Finally, the paper investigates whether, as has been claimed, causal set theory provides a physics of passage.
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If spacetime events that are spacelike related do not exist for each other, then that is a radical fragmentation of reality.
“If spacetime events that are spacelike related do not exist for each other, for instance, then that is a radical fragmentation of reality.13”
From What Becomes of a Causal Set? (2017) · cites this paper as [13]
Section 3 (p. 10) says that spacelike-related events have no physical order of creation, not that they do not exist for each other. Searches for existence between spacelike events and a ‘fragmentation of reality’ found no passage making that claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
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- Authors
- Huggett, N.
- Affiliations
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- Huggett, Nick
- ORCID
- Huggett, Nick
- Venue
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2014-09-02
- Volume
- 1326
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 9-17
- ISSN
- 0077-8923 (ISSN-L)
- 1749-6632
- OpenAlex
- W1901515473
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 18 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- arxiv.org
- Locations
- Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PhilSci-Archive (University of Pittsburgh) (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Relativity and Gravitational Theory
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophical and Theoretical Analysis
- Keywords
- passage of time, real numbers, causal sets, philosophy of time, temporal experience, time in physics
- MeSH terms
- Humans, Models, Theoretical, Physics, Time
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