TRACING TIME

Schedule
Syllabus
Project
Resources
Tutorials
Prompts

Bibliography



Fatalism

  • Aristotle, De Interpretatione, in Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984, Chapter 9.
  • Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy, Book V, Prose vi

Reductionism
  • Alexander, H.G. (ed. and trans.), 1956, The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Ariew, Roger (ed), 2000, Leibniz and Clarke: Correspondence, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing. 
  • Arntzenius, Frank, 2012, Space, Time, and Stuff, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Coope, Ursula, 2001, “Why Does Aristotle Say That There Is No Time Without Change?”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 101(1): 359–367.
  • Mitchell, Sam, 1993, “Mach’s Mechanics and Absolute Space and Time”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A, 24(4): 565–583.
  • Newton, Isaac, 2004, Isaac Newton: Philosophical Writings, Andrew Janiak (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Newton-Smith, W.H., 1980, The Structure of Time, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • Shoemaker, Sydney, 1969, “Time Without Change”, The Journal of Philosophy, 66(12): 363–381.
  • Richard T.W. Arthur, 1985. “Leibniz’s Theory of Time,” in Okruhlik and Brown (eds.), The Natural Philosophy of Leibniz, Dordrecht: Reidel, 263–313.

Presentism, Eternalism, Growing Block Theory
  • Adams, Robert Merrihew, 1986, “Time and Thisness”, Midwest Studies in Philosophy, 11: 315–329.
  • Bigelow, John, 1996, “Presentism and Properties”, Philosophical Perspectives, 10: 35–52.
  • Bourne, Craig, 2006, A Future for Presentism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Emery, Nina2020, “Actualism, Presentism and the Grounding Objection”, Erkenntnis, 85(1): 23–43.
  • Hinchliff, Mark, 1996, “The Puzzle of Change”, Philosophical Perspectives, 10: 119–136.
  • Ingram, David, 2016, “The Virtues of Thisness Presentism”, Philosophical Studies, 173(11): 2867–2888.
  • Keller, Simoon and Michael Nelson, 2001, “Presentists Should Believe in Time-Travel”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 79(3): 333–345.
  • Markosian, Ned, 2004, “A Defense of Presentism”, in Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, volume 1, Dean W. Zimmerman (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 47–82.
  • Markosian, Ned, 2013, “The Truth About the Past and the Future”, in Around the Tree: Semantic and Metaphysical Issues Concerning Branching Time and the Open Future, Fabrice Correia and Andrea Iacona (eds.), Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, 127–141.
  • McCall, Storrs, 1994, A Model of the Universe: Space-Time, Probability, and Decision, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Rini, Adriane A. and Max J. Cresswell, 2012, The World–Time Parallel: Tense and Modality in Logic and Metaphysics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sider, Theodore, 1999, “Presentism and Ontological Commitment”, The Journal of Philosophy, 96(7): 325. 
  • Sider, Theodore, 2001, Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Sullivan, Meghan, 2012b, “Problems for Temporary Existence in Tense Logic”, Philosophy Compass, 7(1): 43–57.
  • Tooley, Michael, 1997, Time, Tense, and Causation, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Zimmerman, Dean W., 1996, “Persistence and Presentism”, Philosophical Papers, 25(2): 115–126.
  • Zimmerman, Dean W., 1998, “Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism”, in Peter van Inwagen and Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Metaphysics: The Big Questions, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 206–209.
Topology of Time
On the beginning and end of time:

  • Aristotle, Physics, in Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984, Book VIII.
  • Kant, Immanuel, 1771/87, The Critique of Pure Reason, Norman Kemp Smith (trans.), London: Macmillan, 1963, pp. 75ff.
  • Newton-Smith, W.H., 1980, The Structure of Time, Ch 5, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • On the linearity of time: 
  • Newton-Smith, W.H., 1980, The Structure of Time, Ch 3, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • Swinburne, R. G., 1966, “The Beginning of the Universe”, Aristotelian Society Supplementary Volume, 40: 125–138

On the direction of time:

  • Price, Huw, 1994, “A Neglected Route to Realism about Quantum Mechanics”, Mind, 103(411): 303–336.
  • Price, Huw, 1996, Time’s Arrow and Archimedes’ Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  • Savitt, Steven F. (ed.), 1995, Time’s Arrows Today: Recent Physical and Philosophical Work on the Direction of Time, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Sklar, Lawrence, 1974, Space, Time, and Spacetime, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. 

On all of these topics:

  • Newton-Smith, W.H., 1980, The Structure of Time, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • McTaggart’s Paradox
  • Bradley, F.H., 1893, Appearance and Reality, London: Swan Sonnenschein; second edition, with an appendix, 1897; ninth impression, corrected, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.
  • Dyke, Heather, 2002, “McTaggart and the Truth about Time”, in Time, Reality & Experience, Craig Callender (ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 137–152. 
  • J. M. E. McTaggart, "The Unreality of Time", Mind 17: 457–73, 1908.
  • Mellor, D.H., 1998, Real Time II, London: Routledge.
  • Prior, Arthur N.,1967, Past, Present, and Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Prior, Arthur N.,1968, Papers on Time and Tense, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • The A Theory and The B Theory
  • Emery, Nina, 2017, “Temporal Ersatzism”, Philosophy Compass, 12(9): e12441.
  • Gale, R. M. (1966). McTaggart’s Analysis of Time. American Philosophical Quarterly, 3(2), 145–152.
  • Le Poidevin, Robin (ed.), 1998, Questions of Time and Tense, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Le Poidevin, Robin and Murray McBeath (eds.), 1993, The Philosophy of Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Markosian, Ned, 1993, “How Fast Does Time Pass?”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 53(4): 829–844.
  • Maudlin, Tim, 2007, “On the Passing of Time”, in his The Metaphysics Within Physics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Chapter 4.
  • Mellor, D.H., 1998, Real Time II, London: Routledge.
  • Prior, Arthur N., 1959 [1976], “Thank Goodness That’s Over”, Philosophy, 34(128): 12–17. Reprinted in his Papers in Logic and Ethics, P. T. Geach and A. J. P. Kenny (eds), London: Duckworth, 1976, pp. 78–84.
  • Prior, Arthur N., 1962 [1968], Changes in Events and Changes in Things (Lindley Lecture Series), Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas. Reprinted in Prior 1968b: 1–14. [Prior 1962 available online]
  • Prior, Arthur N., 1967, Past, Present, and Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Prior, Arthur N., 1968, Papers on Time and Tense, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Prior, Arthur N., 1970, “The Notion of the Present”, Studium Generale, 23: 245–248. Reprinted in The Study of Time, J. T. Fraser, F. C. Haber, and G. H. Müller (eds), Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1972, 320–323.
  • Prior, Arthur N., 1996, “Some Free Thinking About Time”, an undated manuscript first published after his death in Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior, Jack Copeland (ed.), Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp. 47–51.
  • Sider, Theodore, 2001, Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Skow, Bradford, 2009, “Relativity and the Moving Spotlight”:, Journal of Philosophy, 106(12): 666–678.
  • Smart, J. J. C., 1949, “The River of Time”, Mind, 58(232): 483–494. Reprinted in Antony Flew (ed.), Essays in Conceptual Analysis, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966, pp. 213–227. doi:10.1093/mind/LVIII.232.483
  • Smart, J. J. C., 1963, Philosophy and Scientific Realism, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
  • Smith, Quentin, 1993, Language and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Sullivan, Meghan, 2012a, “The Minimal A-Theory”, Philosophical Studies, 158(2): 149–174. 
  • Williams, Donald C., 1951, “The Myth of Passage”:, Journal of Philosophy, 48(15): 457–472.
  • Zimmerman, Dean W.,2005, “The A-Theory of Time, The B-Theory of Time, and ‘Taking Tense Seriously’”, Dialectica, 59(4): 401–457. 
  • Zwart, P.J., 1976, About Time, Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co.

  • Time as a Dimension

  • Lewis, David, 1986, “The Paradoxes of Time Travel”, in his Philosophical Papers, Volume 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 67–80.
  • Hawley, Katherine, 2001, How Things Persist, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Sider, Theodore, 1999, “Presentism and Ontological Commitment”, The Journal of Philosophy, 96(7): 325. doi:10.2307/2564601
  • Van Inwagen, Peter, 1990, “Symposia Papers: Four-Dimensional Objects”, Noûs, 24(2): 245–255. doi:10.2307/2215526
  • Dynamic and Static Theory
  • Hawley, Katherine, 2001, How Things Persist, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Lewis, David, 1986, “The Paradoxes of Time Travel”, in his Philosophical Papers, Volume 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 67–80.
  • Markosian, Ned, 1993, “How Fast Does Time Pass?”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, 53(4): 829–844.
  • Markosian, Ned, 2004, “A Defense of Presentism”, in Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, volume 1, Dean W. Zimmerman (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 47–82.
  • Markosian, Ned“The Dynamic Theory of Time and Time Travel to the Past”, Disputatio.
  • Moss, Sarah, 2012, “Four-Dimensionalist Theories of Persistence”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 90: 671–686.
  • Price, Marjorie, 1977, “Identity Through Time”, The Journal of Philosophy, 74: 201–217.
  • Prior, Arthur N.,1967, Past, Present, and Future, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Prior, Arthur N.,1968, Papers on Time and Tense, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Sider, Theodore, 1999, “Presentism and Ontological Commitment”, The Journal of Philosophy, 96(7): 325.
  • Smart, J. J. C., 1949, “The River of Time”, Mind, 58(232): 483–494. Reprinted in Antony Flew (ed.), Essays in Conceptual Analysis, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1966, pp. 213–227.
  • Sullivan, Meghan, 2012a, “The Minimal A-Theory”, Philosophical Studies, 158(2): 149–174.
  • Thomson, Judith Jarvis, 1983, “Parthood and Identity Across Time”, The Journal of Philosophy, 80(4): 201–220.
  • Williams, Donald C., 1951, “The Myth of Passage”:, Journal of Philosophy, 48(15): 457–472..

  • The Moving Spotlight Theory
  • Broad, C.D., 1923, Scientific Thought, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
  • Cameron, Ross P., 2015, The Moving Spotlight: An Essay on Time and Ontology, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Fine, Kit, 2005, Modality and Tense: Philosophical Papers, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Hawley, Katherine,, 2004 [2020], “Temporal Parts”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2020 Edition)
  • Lewis, David, 1986, “The Paradoxes of Time Travel”, in his Philosophical Papers, Volume 2, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 67–80. (especially Chapter 4.2)
  • Sider, Theodore, 2001, Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Skow, Bradford, 2015, Objective Becoming, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Thomson, Judith Jarvis, 1983, “Parthood and Identity Across Time”, The Journal of Philosophy, 80(4): 201–220.
  • Van Inwagen, Peter, 1983, An Essay on Free Will, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  • Zimmerman, Dean W., 1998, “Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism”, in Peter van Inwagen and Dean W. Zimmerman (eds.), Metaphysics: The Big Questions, Oxford: Basil Blackwell, pp. 206–209.



Time and Physics
  • Albert, David, 2000, Time and Chance, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  • Emery, Nina, 2019, “Actualism without Presentism? Not by Way of the Relativity Objection”, Noûs, 53(4): 963–986.
  • Emery, Nina, forthcoming, “Temporal Ersatzism and Relativity”, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, first online: 7 July 2020.
  • Godfrey-Smith, William, 1979, “Special Relativity and the Present”, Philosophical Studies, 36(3): 233–244.
  • Healey, Richard, 2002, “Can Physics Coherently Deny the Reality of Time?”, Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 50: 293–316.
  • Huggett and Wüthrich 2013; 
  • Knox, Eleanor, 2013, “Effective Spacetime Geometry”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part B: Studies in History and Philosophy of Modern Physics, 44(3): 346–356.
  • Markosian, Ned, 2004, “A Defense of Presentism”, in Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, volume 1, Dean W. Zimmerman (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 47–82.
  • Maxwell, Nicholas, 1985, “Are Probabilism and Special Relativity Incompatible?”, Philosophy of Science, 52(1): 23–43.
  • Price, Marjorie, 1977, “Identity Through Time”, The Journal of Philosophy, 74: 201–217. 
  • Putnam, Hilary, 1967, “Time and Physical Geometry”:, Journal of Philosophy, 64(8): 240–247.
  • Rovelli, Carlo, 2017, Reality is Not What It Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity, New York: Riverhead Books.
  • Savitt, Steven F., 2000, “There’s No Time like the Present (In Minkowski Spacetime)”, Philosophy of Science, 67(supplement: Proceedings of the 1998 Biennial Meetings of the Philosophy of Science Association): S563–S574.
  • Stein, Howard, 1968, “On Einstein-Minkowski Space-Time”:, Journal of Philosophy, 65(1): 5–23.
  • Weingard, Robert, 1972, “Relativity and the Reality of Past and Future Events”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 23(2): 119–121.
  • Wüthrich, Christian and Craig Callender, 2017, “What Becomes of a Causal Set?”, The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 68(3): 907–925.

  • Time and Rationality
  • Brink, David O., 2003, “Prudence and Authenticity: Intrapersonal Conflicts of Value”, Philosophical Review, 112(2): 215–245.
  • Suhler, Christopher and Craig Callender, 2012, “Thank Goodness That Argument Is Over: Explaining the Temporal Value Asymmetry”, Philosopher’s Imprint, 12: art. 15.
  • Parfit, Derek, 1971, “Personal Identity”, The Philosophical Review, 80(1): 3–27.
  • Paul, L. A., 2010, “Temporal Experience”, Journal of Philosophy, 107(7): 333–359.
  • Prosser, Simon, 2016, Experiencing Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Sullivan, Meghan, 2018, Time Biases: A Theory of Rational Planning and Personal Persistence, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Assembly Theory
  • Sharma, A., Czégel, D., Lachmann, M. et al. Assembly theory explains and quantifies selection and evolution. Nature 622, 321–328 (2023).


  • Time Travel
  • Bernstein, Sara, 2015, “Nowhere Man: Time Travel and Spatial Location: Nowhere Man”, Midwest Studies In Philosophy, 39: 158–168.
  • Bernstein, Sara2017, “Time Travel and the Movable Present”, in Being, Freedom, and Method, John A. Keller (ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 80–92.
  • Dyke, Heather2005, “The Metaphysics and Epistemology of Time Travel”, Think, 3: 43–52.
  • Earman, John, 1995, “Recent Work on Time Travel”, in Savitt 1995: 268–310.
  • Markosian, Ned, forthcoming, “The Dynamic Theory of Time and Time Travel to the Past”, Disputatio.
  • Meiland, Jack W., 1974, “A Two-Dimensional Passage Model of Time for Time Travel”, Philosophical Studies, 26(3–4): 153–173.
  • Miller, Kristie, 2017, “Is Some Backwards Time Travel Inexplicable?” American Philosophical Quarterly, 54(2): 131–141.
  • Sider, Theodore, 2001, Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Thorne, Kip S., 1994, Black Holes and Time Warps, New York: W.W. Norton.
  • Vihvelin, Kadri, 1996, “What Time Travelers Cannot Do”, Philosophical Studies, 81(2–3): 315–330. 
  • Yourgrau, Palle, 1999, Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Göodel Universe, La Salle: Open Court.

Others
  • Braun, Marta (1992). Picturing Time: The Work of Etienne-Jules Marey. University of Chicago Press. (ISBN: 9780226071756)
  • David Leatherbarrow, Building Time: Architecture, event, and experience, Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020 (ISBN: 978-1350165182)
  • Mosen Mostafavi and David Leatherbarrow, On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time, MIT, 1993. (ISBN: 978-02626314400