Single Idea 23010

[catalogued under 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / g. Time's arrow]

Full Idea

An option for accounting for the direction of time would be to appeal to the direction of causation …to the future is the direction towards which there are effects, and the past is the direction towards which there are causes.

Gist of Idea

We could explain time's direction by causation: past is the direction of causes, future of effects

Source

Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 5.6.2)

Book Reference

Baron,S/Miller,K: 'Introduction to the Philosophy of Time' [Polity 2019], p.142


A Reaction

The obvious problem is that we can no longer pick out a cause by saying it 'precedes' its effect. It is not obvious what other criterion can be used to distinguish them (esp. given Hume's regularity account).