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Discussion: Special Relativity and the Flow of Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

D. Dieks*
Affiliation:
Physical Laboratory State University of Utrecht

Abstract

N. Maxwell (1985) has claimed that special relativity and “probabilism” are incompatible; “probabilism” he defines as the doctrine that “the universe is such that, at any instant, there is only one past but many alternative possible futures”. Thus defined, the doctrine is evidently prerelativistic as it depends on the notion of a universal instant of the universe. In this note I show, however, that there is a straightforward relativistic generalization, and that therefore Maxwell's conclusion that the special theory of relativity should be amended is unwarranted. I leave open the question whether or not probabilism (or the related doctrine of the flow of time) is true, but argue that the special theory of relativity has no fundamental significance for this question.

Type
Discussion
Copyright
Copyright © 1988 by the Philosophy of Science Association

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References

REFERENCES

Kroes, P. (1985), Time: Its Structure and Role in Physical Theories. Dordrecht: D. Reidel.Google Scholar
Maxwell, N. (1985), “Are Probabilism and Special Relativity Incompatible?”, Philosophy of Science 52: 2343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar