Questioning the concept of time is perplexing but has been vital to the field of metaphysics over the years. There are two prevalent theories that attempt to define the true nature of time, presentism and eternalism. This essay will explore how eternalism manages to describe the ontological nature of time. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay According to eternalism the past, present and future do not exist, only the space-time grid exists. This deviates from our classical understanding of time which suggests that time itself moves. Sider's hypertime idea does a good job of explaining why this is a misconception and supports the spacetime theory as the most plausible one. According to Sider, the events of our life occur relative to a time, which means that time must also move relative to something. It proposes the idea of time moving in relation to another type of time, hypertime. However, this introduces the notion of having an infinite series of hypertimes which is virtually impossible to prove. Eternalism is inspired by space-time theory as it defines time and space as analogous. Just as Melbourne and Sydney exist but in different parts of Australia, time exists as different places and these different times exist in the same way as others. Most philosophers today prefer eternalism to presentism and other theories because eternalism is scientifically accurate. Einstein's theory of special relativity suggests an eternalist view of time because it suggests that the past, present, and future are arbitrary points on a continuum. An event is both a place and a time and can be represented by a particular point in space-time. Einstein postulates time not as something absolute but relative to reference systems. Without getting too caught up in the physics behind this, if we look at a point 'm' on the space-time grid, we can see that everything that happened before m is relative to the past and that everything that happened before m is relative to the past happens after m is relative to the future of m. The past and the future are relative and can differ completely at another point 'x'. Time therefore does not move constantly as we might be inclined to believe but in reality it begins to show even more peculiar characteristics such as dilation if we look at its mathematics. Spacetime can therefore conceptualize time as a series of an infinitely wide variety of events. Complete records of a specific point are represented with a line in space-time. The past, present and future are accessible to a specific object at a specific point. This has led physicists to neglect time as something that passes, or to describe it as a sequence of events that happen: both the past and the future are "there", arranged as part of four-dimensional space-time, some of which we have already visited and some we still have to do. Just as we are sure that all components of space exist even if we are not there, all time (past, present, and future) continually exists even if we are in no position to witness it. Time is not a flowing river but is simply as the eternalist philosophy of time suggests. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In conclusion, the biggest criticism of this theory is that it is counterintuitive and does not align with our tendency to have a presentist temporal phenomenology. Temporal phenomenology refers to the way we, how.
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