This book offers a defense of the tensed theory of time, a critique of the New Theory of Reference, and an argument that simultaneity is absolute. Although Smith rejects ordinary language philosophy, he shows how it is possible to argue from the nature of language to the nature of reality. Specifically, he argues that semantic properties of tensed sentences are best explained by the hypothesis that they ascribe to events temporal properties of futurity, presentness, or pastness and do not merely ascribe relations of earlier than or simultaneity. He criticizes the New Theory of Reference,...

Contemporary science presents us with the remarkable theory that the universe began to exist about fifteen billion years ago with a cataclysmic explosion called "the Big Bang." The question of whether Big Bang cosmology supports theism or atheism has long been a matter of discussion among the general public and in popular science books, but has received scant attention from philosophers. This book sets out to fill this gap by means of a sustained debate between two philosophers, William Lane Craig and Quentin Smith, who defend opposing positions. Craig argues that the Big Bang that began the...

Consciousness is perhaps the most puzzling problem we humans face in trying to understand ourselves. Here, eighteen essays offer new angles on the subject. The contributors, who include many of the leading figures in philosophy of mind, discuss such central topics as intentionality, phenomenal content, and the relevance of quantum mechanics to the study of consciousness.

Consciousness is perhaps the most puzzling problem we humans face in trying to understand ourselves. Here, eighteen essays offer new angles on the subject. The contributors, who include many of the leading figures in philosophy of mind, discuss such central topics as intentionality, phenomenal content, and the relevance of quantum mechanics to the study of consciousness.

The most important debate between twentieth-century philosophers of time has been whether events that have happened, are happening, or will happen are equally real (the tenseless theory of time) or whether there is a fundamental distinction between past, present, and future, with only present events possessing full existence (the tensed theory). In the 1980s a new version of the tenseless theory of time emerged. While advocates still posit that all events are equally real, they depart from the old tenseless theory by conceding that tensed expressions cannot be translated into tenseless ones,...

This book is the first to provide a critical history of analytic philosophy from its inception in the late nineteenth century to the present day. Quentin Smith focuses on the connections between the four leading movements in analytic philosophy-logical realism, logical positivism, ordinary language analysis, and linguistic essentialism-and corresponding twentieth-century theories of ethics and of religion. Through a critical evaluation of each school's theoretical positions, Smith counters the widespread view of analytic philosophy as indifferent to important questions about right and wrong...

This introduction to metaphysics is tied together by the idea of time. It explores ideas such as whether there was a beginning of time and the possibility of an infinite past and an eternal future. It looks at what happens when things change, and what affect that has on us and our personal identity. The book also asks if we can be free and what is the relationship of human freedom to various theories of divine foreknowledge and determinism? The final part of the book brings students up to date with theories of relativity and contemporary cosmology about time and the universe.

This is the first introduction to metaphysics which is tied together by the idea of time. Time, Change and Freedom explores ideas such as whether there was a beginning of time and the possibility of an infinite past and an eternal future. It looks at what happens when things change, and what affect that has on us and our personal identity. The book also asks if we can be free and what is the relationship of human freedom to various theories of divine foreknowledge and determinism? The final part of the book...

This text features an anthology of original essays by an international team of leading philosophers and physicists who, on the centenary of Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, come together in this volume to reassess the contemporary paradigm of the relativistic concept of time.