Background Reading

You may not be familiar with the Growing-Block view of time. While all the papers in this conference are meant to be written in quite an accessible way, they are often continuing debates that have been going for some time.

The proposed edited collection will contain a substantial introduction, with an attempt to fill in some of the gaps for the uninitiated, but, to borrow Broad’s charming phrase, the following works may be consulted with profit:

 

The classic discussion of the Growing-Block view is C.D. Broad’s (1923) Scientific Thought, chapter 2, pp. 53-84.

The fullest defence of the Growing-Block view has been given by Michael Tooley (1998) in his Time, Tense, and Causation.

The objection that the Growing-Block view has problems about the status of it’s past is discussed by David Braddon-Mitchel in his (2004) ‘How do we know it is now now’ in Analysis.

The issues that the Growing-Block view faces from the perspective of contemporary physics are discussed in John Earmans’s (2008) ‘Reassessing the Prospects for a Growing Block Model of the Universe’ in International Studies in the Philosophy of Science

The prospects for Time-Travel on the Growing-Block view are discussed in Peter Van Inwagen’s (2010) ‘Changing the Past‘ in Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, volume 5.