Primitive Directionality and Diachronic Grounding

Acta Analytica 35 (2):195-211 (2019)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Eternalists believe that there is no ontological difference between the past, present and future. Thus, a challenge arises: in virtue of what does time have a direction? Some eternalists, Oaklander and Tegtmeier ) argue that the direction of time is primitive. A natural response to positing primitive directionality is the suspicion that said posit is too mysterious to do any explanatory work. The aim of this paper is to relieve primitive directionality of some of its mystery by offering a novel way to understand the phenomenon in terms of the recently popularised notion of grounding.

Other Versions

No versions found

Analytics

Added to PP
2019-08-10

Downloads
765 (#31,894)

6 months
132 (#38,345)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author Profiles

James Norton
University of Tasmania
Naoyuki Kajimoto
Institute of Philosophy, Chinese Academy of Science (CASIP)
Kristie Miller
University of Sydney

References found in this work

On what grounds what.Jonathan Schaffer - 2009 - In Ryan Wasserman, David Manley & David Chalmers (eds.), Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. pp. 347-383.
The metaphysics within physics.Tim Maudlin - 2007 - New York: Oxford University Press.
No Work for a Theory of Grounding.Jessica M. Wilson - 2014 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 57 (5-6):535-579.
The unreality of time.John Ellis McTaggart - 1908 - Mind 17 (68):457-474.
Against Grounding Necessitarianism.Alexander Skiles - 2015 - Erkenntnis 80 (4):717-751.

View all 50 references / Add more references