The nature of time is one of the trickiest puzzles in philosophy. Is the distinction between present, past and future objective, or is it the result of a subjective perspective on reality? How can we say that time exists if only the present is real and if the present is just a fleeting instant? What is an instant? If time does exist and flow, how does it flow? Is it a continuum, or is it discrete? Would time be flowing if there was no change under way in the world? If there was nobody to observe that change? Is all of reality subjected to time, or only certain categories of being? Is eternity an endless stretch of time?
We will examine the main answers to these questions in a wide range of philosophies, from Ancient thought to Arabic and Latin medieval theories to the Cartesian and the Newtonian revolutions, Leibniz, and Kant, and to Bergson and contemporary phenomenological and analytic approaches as well.
This class will fulfil the coursework requirement regarding medieval and modern philosophy.
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