The physics and metaphysics of time

Abstract

We review the current situation in the philosophy of time, partly to investigate Michael Dummett’s complaint that the philosophy of physics has become too specialized and technical to be able to communicate with mainstream philosophy. We conclude that the situation in this case is different: there is no special diffi culty of intelligibility – the obstacle for communication between science and philosophy here is rather that what physics, or science in general, tells us is prima facie in confl ict with common sense and intuition. We argue that this diffi culty is indeed prima facie: on closer inspection it appears that the scientific B-theory may explain our intuition better than the A-theory, even though the latter at fi rst sight seems to completely mirror our direct experience.