MAX-PLANCK-INSTITUT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTSGESCHICHTE Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

Event

Sep 14, 2021
From Unreal to Real Time: British Metaphysics 1870s-1920s

Around the turn of the twentieth century, British metaphysics of time saw two major changes. First, from the 1870s to 1900s, philosophers became convinced time was unreal. Philosophers en masse denied the reality of time, from F. H. Bradley to J. M. E. McTaggart. Second, from the 1890s onwards, philosophers began to embrace time, developing newfangled theories. The early theories of Victoria Welby, F. C. S. Schiller, Bertrand Russell, and Samuel Alexander, conceived time to be static. The later theories of C. D. Broad, Arthur Eddington, Susan Stebbing, R. G. Collingwood, and many others, conceived time to be dynamic. 

This broad-brush, big ideas paper asks, Why did these two changes occur? It explores the role of biological evolution, the spatialisation of time, and temporal psychology; and asks how the debates between static and dynamic theories got started. 

Contact and Registration

The talk of Dr. Emily Thomas will take place as a hybrid event. We have already reached a maximum number of people allowed to the seminar room in the Villa, but please feel free to join us via Zoom if you are interested. For this reason, please feel free to contact Office Blum (officeblum@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de) as soon as possible if you are interested in the topic.

About This Series

The seminar series of the Research Group “Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program” runs once a month, usually on a Monday at 14:30 in the seminar room of the Villa (Harnackstraße 5). The talks deal primarily with the history, philosophy, and foundations of modern (post-WWII) physics or with wider epistemological questions related to the work of the group. There are no pre-circulated papers.

Full program of the seminar series, Research Group “Historical Epistemology of the Final Theory Program”
2021-09-14T14:00:00SAVE IN I-CAL 2021-09-14 14:00:00 2021-09-14 15:00:00 From Unreal to Real Time: British Metaphysics 1870s-1920s Around the turn of the twentieth century, British metaphysics of time saw two major changes. First, from the 1870s to 1900s, philosophers became convinced time was unreal. Philosophers en masse denied the reality of time, from F. H. Bradley to J. M. E. McTaggart. Second, from the 1890s onwards, philosophers began to embrace time, developing newfangled theories. The early theories of Victoria Welby, F. C. S. Schiller, Bertrand Russell, and Samuel Alexander, conceived time to be static. The later theories of C. D. Broad, Arthur Eddington, Susan Stebbing, R. G. Collingwood, and many others, conceived time to be dynamic.  This broad-brush, big ideas paper asks, Why did these two changes occur? It explores the role of biological evolution, the spatialisation of time, and temporal psychology; and asks how the debates between static and dynamic theories got started.  Europe/Berlin public