Alicorn comments on [Poll] Less Wrong and Mainstream Philosophy: How Different are We? - Less Wrong

38 Post author: Jayson_Virissimo 26 September 2012 12:25PM

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Comment author: Alicorn 26 September 2012 06:51:48PM 4 points [-]

And he didn't mean to name competing theories about time; he was trying to dismiss the both of them.

Comment author: [deleted] 26 September 2012 06:55:12PM 0 points [-]

I think he was just a B-theorist (though he thought the self-contradictory A-theory was an ineliminable part of our thoughts about time).

Comment author: Alicorn 26 September 2012 06:59:31PM 3 points [-]

Wikipedia appears to confirm my memory of it ("McTaggart argued that the A series was a necessary component of any full theory of time, but that it was also self-contradictory and that our perception of time was, therefore, ultimately an incoherent illusion.")

Comment author: [deleted] 26 September 2012 08:14:23PM 0 points [-]

Does it say he rejected the B-Theory?

Comment author: Alicorn 26 September 2012 08:20:43PM 2 points [-]

It seems like the sentence I quoted indicates that he didn't consider it a "full theory of time". I don't feel like rereading the actual paper, though.

Comment author: [deleted] 26 September 2012 08:27:11PM 4 points [-]

Looking at the paper, I find that you're right.

Comment author: crazy88 28 September 2012 05:20:40AM 1 point [-]

From memory, McTaggart argues that change is a necessary part of our concept of time. That B-theories can't account for change and that A-theories are incoherent. Consequently, time does not exist (but presumably something with some similarities to time does)