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The terms A-theory and B-theory, first coined by Richard M. Gale in 1966, [3] derive from Cambridge philosopher J. M. E. McTaggart's analysis of time and change in "The Unreality of Time" (1908), in which events are ordered via a tensed A-series or a tenseless B-series.
The A series is tensed and the B series is tenseless. For example, the assertion "today it is raining" is a tensed assertion because it depends on the temporal perspective—the present—of the person who utters it, while the assertion "It rained on 2 January 2025" is tenseless because it does not so depend.
The A-series identifies positions in time as past, present, or future, and thus assumes that the "present" has some objective reality, as in both presentism and the growing block universe. [8] The B-series defines a given event as earlier or later than another event, but does not assume an objective present, as in four-dimensionalism.
In new research published in the American Physical Society's peer-reviewed journal Physical Review A, scientists from Italy (led by Alessandro Coppo) try to translate one theory of time into real ...
According to J. M. E. McTaggart's "The Unreality of Time", there are two ways of referring to events: the 'A Series' (or 'tensed time': yesterday, today, tomorrow) and the 'B Series' (or 'untensed time': Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). Presentism posits that the A Series is fundamental and that the B Series alone is not sufficient.
"The Unreality of Time" is the best-known philosophical work of University of Cambridge idealist J. M. E. McTaggart (1866–1925). In the argument, first published as a journal article in Mind in 1908, McTaggart argues that time is unreal because our descriptions of time are either contradictory, circular, or insufficient.
Multiple independent timeframes, in which time passes at different rates, have long been a feature of stories. [15] Fantasy writers such as J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis have made use of these and other multiple time dimensions, such as those proposed by Dunne, in some of their most well-known stories. [15]
Change, Cause and Contradiction: A Defence of the Tenseless Theory of Time, London: Macmillan, 1991. ISBN 978-0333542866; Arguing for Atheism: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 978-0415093385; Travels in Four Dimensions: The Enigmas of Space and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 978 ...