Debating Temporal Ontology: The Existence of Yesterday and Tomorrow
A special issue of Philosophies (ISSN 2409-9287).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 July 2026 | Viewed by 46
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Temporal metaphysis has long been concerned with temporal ontology; that is, the study of which times exist, and, further, what nature times have (are they concrete things or abstract objects). Several views have been proposed in this area, including the view that only the present time exists, or that all times exist, but only the time present is concretely realized, or that all times exist and are concrete. Answering these questions is important for understanding the nature of time, and for situating such an understanding into a broadly scientific view of the world. For instance, it has been argued that the view that our world is a four-dimensional block of spacetime in which all times exist and are concrete better accords with the scientific picture of our world. By contrast, it has been argued that other views better accord with the way that we experience the world, for instance, as containing temporal passage, or as containing a fixed past and open future, or, according to some, there is some connection between temporal ontology (particularly future ontology) and free will.
This Special Issue investigates temporal ontology and its connection to a broad range of questions about the nature of time and experience.
In this Special Issue, original research articles are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Temporal ontology and models of time (including presentism, the growing block, eternalism)
- Connections between temporal ontology and temporal passage
- Temporal ontology and time travel
- Temporal ontology and the ontological nature of times (i.e., abstract versus concrete)
- Temporal ontology and temporal experience
- Temporal ontology and truthmaking
- Temporal ontology and modality
- Temporal ontology and freedom
- Change and temporal ontology
- Temporal ontology and physics (especially general and special relativity, and quantum gravity)
- Temporal ontology, temporal direction, and physics (especially entropy and statistical mechanics)
Prof. Dr. Kristie Miller
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- temporal ontology
- time
- temporal passage
- B-theory
- A-theory
- block universe
- eternalism
- presentism
- growing block
- truthmaking
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