The Metaphysically Dynamic Universe by Stephen Barker

The Metaphysically Dynamic Universe by Stephen Barker

This book develops a new metaphysical framework in which time is motion through a higher dimension. In other words, time literally flows. It breaks through the long debate about time flow and temporal experience in metaphysics by offering an entirely new approach that reconciles psychological time with the time of science.

Our experience of change and our own being in time reveals a relentless motion or passage. Time really appears to flow. This apparent time motion is a profound enigma for currently well-known conceptions of time. This book develops a new theory of time that renders temporal passage fully intelligible. It treats time motion seriously by building in motion as a metaphysically fundamental feature of the physical universe, whose principal form is through higher-dimensional space. This motion-first metaphysics rejects the orthodox view that motion is explained in terms of space and time; rather, it uses space and motion to define time. Furthermore, it solves puzzles of time, change, and persistence, and is consistent with special relativity.

The Metaphysically Dynamic Universe will appeal to researchers and graduate students interested in philosophy of time, metaphysics, and philosophy of physics.

"This book is an ambitious and provocative statement of a novel view that is worthy of serious considerationBarker develops and defends a new 'motion-first' theory of time, pushing back against prevailing orthodoxies, particularly views according to which temporal reality is somehow static and time’s motion is merely metaphorical rather than literal. Barker responds with characteristic boldness: Eppur si muove!"

David Ingram, University of York, UK

Stephen Barker is a philosopher at the University of Nottingham; prior to that he held positions at UNAM, Mexico, University of Tasmania, and Monash University. He has published in Philosophy of Language and Metaphysics on counterfactuals, powers ontology, persistence and paradox, negative states of affairs, bundle theory, and global expressivism.