The Moment of Change: A Systematic History in the Philosophy of Space and Time

ISBN-13: 9789048150441 / Angielski / Miękka / 2010 / 306 str.

N. Strobach

Opis

The Moment of Change is the first systematic history of one of the oldest problems in the philosophy of space and time: How is the change from one state to its opposite to be described? Authors treated in this book range from Plato, Aristotle, medieval logicians, Kant, Brentano and Russell to contemporary authors, taking into account such theories as interval semantics and paraconsistent logic. The texts are analysed under two main aspects: Which (if any) of the opposite states does the moment of change belong to? And does it contain an instantaneous event? In the last part a new way of treating the moment of change is developed, which leads to a solution to Zeno's Flying Arrow Paradox. Audience: The book will be of interest to advanced students and scholars of analytic philosophy and the history of philosophy.

Spis treści

Preface. Introduction. Part I: The Moment of Change from Antiquity to the 19th Century. 1. Plato. 2. Aristotle. 3. The Moment of Change in the Middle Ages. 4. Kant, Mendelssohn, Schopenhauer. Part II: The Moment of Change in the 20th Century. 1. The Either/Or-Option. 2. The Either-Way Option. 3. The Both-States-Option. 4. The Neither-Nor Option. 5. The Neutral Instant Analysis. Part III: A Systematic Suggestion. Introduction. Section 1. The Snapshot Myth. Section 2. A Path to a Plausible Description of the Moment of Change. Section 3. The Classification of the Moment of Change. Appendix A: A Formal Characterization of s-Changes and C-Changes. Appendix B: A Formal Version of Aristotle's Proof in Phys. 235b26ff. Appendix C: Informal Proofs for Some Important Statements Concerning First and Last Instants of States in Dense Time. Appendix D: Paraphernalia About Rest and Motion. Notes. References. Names Index. Subject Index. List of the Main Texts.