Parmenides

via Melissus: impossibility of change

And it cannot perish, or become greater, or be rearranged, or

feel pain or distress. For if it experienced any of these, it
would no longer be one. For if it became different, it is
necessary that what is is not alike, but what previously was
perishes, and what is not comes to be.
Suppose change is possible:
Leaft1 is green.
Leaft2 is red.
Since green is not red, Leaft1 is not Leaft2.
But Leaft1 is Leaft2! Contradiction.
Therefore change is not possible.
Batman is Bruce Wayne.
Superman is Clark Kent.
Since Bruce Wayne is not Clark Kent, Batman is not Superman.

‘is’ of predication vs. ‘is’ of identity

Zeno’s runner (from trottermath.net)
What is the nature of time?
Ordinary conception of time: it moves
Time flies, time stood still, the past is gone

But time is the standard against which we measure motion

So how can time itself move?

Moving time?
Motion of ordinary objects: an object moves when it changes
place over time
e.g., train in Montreal at 10am, Ottawa at noon,
Toronto at 3pm.
If objects move with respect to time, with respect to what
does time move?
Hypertime?
Time appears to move as the present moment moving: it is
now 12:45pm, later it will be 2pm, etc.

So the present moment must have these different ‘time

places’ at different time: it changes its place over time

It changes its place in hypertime which changes its place in

hyperhypertime etc.
Time doesn’t move?

Scientific conception of time: it does not move, but rather is

like space

Time is just one dimension alongside three spatial dimensions

Reality consists of a single unified space-time which contains

all past, present and future moments.
Space and time are analogous

1. Reality
Spatially distant objects (planets) are as real as spatially
near objects
Temporally distant objects (dinosaurs) are as real as present
objects
2. Parts
Spatial objects have parts that take up space.
Temporal objects have parts that exist in time.
3. Here and now

Both are context-dependent

There is no single real objective here or now

indexicals
Space and time are not analogous
1. Change
Things that have different properties at different times
change
Things that have different properties at different places
don’t change

Why should they be the same in this respect?

2. Motion
Things can move back and forth in time, not in space

B is at place p1 at time t1, place p2 at time t2, and place p1 at time t3

B is at t1 at place p1, t2 at place p2, and place p3 at time t1.

Both can be true.

3. Causes
We can cause future events but not past events: there is
no backwards causation

It’s true that we never observe backwards causation, but could

backwards causation occur, even if it never actually does?
If backward causation is possible, then time travel is possible.

Is time travel conceptually possible?

Can we tell a coherent (consistent) time travel story? If yes, then time is
like space.
Marty McFly is first at 1985, then at 1955. Contradiction?

Distinguish actual order of events from experienced

order of events

1985 is after 1955 in the actual ordering of events in time, but

the Marty McFly experiences 1985 as before 1955.
But Back to the Future is incoherent:

Marty goes back in time and interrupts his parents’ getting together, so
stops them from having him, but if they never had him, he couldn’t go
back in time to interrupt them, in which case they would have had him.
However Terminator is coherent:

John Connor participates in the past, but doesn’t change

anything

Therefore time travel is coherent, conceptually possible, and time is like

space.