What Makes Time Special?

Craig Callender

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Hardback

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English

Oxford University Press
20 July 2017

The flow of time is a deep, significant and universal aspect of human life. Yet it remains a mystery. Physics can find no room for it.

Many dismiss the flow of time as illusory. Yet if it is, such a sweeping and important illusion demands explanation. Craig Callender presents the first book length treatment providing such an explanation. After showing that physics doesn't vindicate a flow of time, What Makes Time Special? shows that physics still makes surprising and deep distinctions between time and space.

Using these distinctions, alongisde important insights from philosophy, cognitive science, psychology, and biology, it develops a theory of why creatures model time as flowing -- even if, as physics suggests, it isn't. The theory claims that the flowing present model of time is the natural reaction to the perceptual and evolutionary challenges thrown at us. Modeling time as flowing makes sense even if it misrepresents it.

By: Craig Callender
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 241mm, Width: 162mm, Spine: 26mm
Weight: 676g
ISBN: 9780198797302
ISBN 10: 0198797303
Pages: 364
Publication Date: 20 July 2017
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1: The Problem of Time 2: Lost Time: Relativity Theory 3: Tearing Spacetime Asunder 4: Quantum Becoming? 5: Intimations of Quantum Gravitational Time 6: The Differences Between Time and Space 7: Laws, Systems, and Time 8: Looking at the World Sideways 9: Do We Experience the Present? 10: Stuck in the Common Now 11: The Flow of Time: Stitching the World Together 12: Explaining the Temporal Value Asymmetry 13: Moving Past the ABCs of Time 14: Putting It All Together

Craig Callender earned his PhD with research on the direction of time at Rutgers University. He then worked at the London School of Economics before moving to the University of California, San Diego. He has interests in time and physics, the interpretation of quantum mechanics, quantum gravity, philosophy of science, and environmental ethics. He is editor of the Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time (2011).

Reviews for What Makes Time Special?

'Time is a big invisible thing that will kill you' (p. 1). I cannot think of a more striking opening sentence to a work of philosophy in recent times - or at any time, for that matter. What follows is a comprehensive tour of philosophy of time from Callender's perspective, written with great insight, as well as wit and flair. ... Callender has written a survey of issues in philosophy of time from a broadly naturalistic perspective. It is rich in detail and argument. ... Anyone interested in understanding time will be rewarded by further digging. * Steven F. Savitt, British Journal for the Philosophy of Science * This is a golden age for the philosophy of time. ... Callender's book is a novel and engaging contribution to this positive development, driven by a desire to understand the emergence of manifest time from a physical world initially hostile to it, with the help of disciplines as different as hard-core theoretical physics and experimental psychology (and much in-between). ... I wholeheartedly recommend his new book to everyone interested in time and its puzzles. * Yuri Balashov, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * [A]mbitious and highly original contribution to the philosophy of time ... displays nothing short of profound insight into the way physics informs old debates about time ... densely-argued, fascinating treatment of the problem of time, that breaks new ground ... will be compulsory reading for anyone interested in the topic [of time], not just philosophers of physics * Comments from selectors of the 2018 Lakatos Award * Without question, I am extremely enthusiastic about Callender's book. It is bursting at the seams with insight and ingenuity. It is written with great clarity and flow, traversing complex, advanced material with the ease of a true master. What Makes Time Special? is a seminal contribution to the field, comparable to classics such as D. H. Mellor's Real Time and Paul Horwich's Asymmetries in Time. It is an engaging and exciting piece of scientific philosophy that will stand the test of time. Anyone interested in the issues it addresses should read it. * M. Joshua Mozersky, Metascience *

Winner of Winner of the 2018 Lakatos Award.
Winner of Winner, 2022 Patrick Suppes Prize for Philosophy of Science, The American Philosophical Society Winner of the 2018 Lakatos Award.