Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T20:59:19.311Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Time's Arrow and the Structure of Spacetime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

Geoffrey Matthews
Geoffrey Matthews*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The theory of general relativity has produced some great insights into the nature of space and time. Unfortunately, its relevance to the problem of the direction of time has been overestimated. This paper points out that the problem of the direction of time can be formulated in purely local ways, and that in this kind of formulation considerations of general relativity are of little or no importance. On the basis of this, positions which assume that relativistic considerations are always relevant are criticised.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 46 , Issue 1 , March 1979 , pp. 82 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1979

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

I wish to thank John Winnie, Indiana University, and the anonymous referee for helpful advice on earlier versions of this paper.

References

Earman, J. (1974), “An Attempt to Add a Little Direction to ‘the Problem of the Direction of Time’.” Philosophy of Science 41: 15–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gold, T. (ed. 1967), The Nature of Time. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Grünbaum, A. (1973), Philosophical Problems of Space and Time. 2nd edn. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Co.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawking, S. W., and Ellis, G. F. R. (1973), The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. London: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Layzer, D. (1975), “The Arrow of Time.” Scientific American: 56–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reichenbach, H. (1956), The Direction of Time. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warner, F. W. (1971), Foundations of Differentiable Manifolds and Lie Groups. Glenview: Scott, Foresman and Company.Google Scholar