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Single Idea 14615

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / b. Rate of time ]

Full Idea

If it is said that time flows, then it seems that the question 'how fast does it flow?' is a devastating one for the A-theorist.

Gist of Idea

If time flows, then 'how fast does it flow?' is a tricky question

Source

J.J.C. Smart (The Tenseless Theory of Time [2008], 5)

Book Ref

'Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics', ed/tr. Sider/Hawthorne/Zimmerman [Blackwell 2008], p.235


A Reaction

This is one of the basic landmarks in any debate on time. Time can't be understood by analogy with anything else (such as a river) it seems.


The 6 ideas with the same theme [speed of the passing of time]:

If time involved succession, we must think of another time in which succession occurs [Kant]
If time flows, then 'how fast does it flow?' is a tricky question [Smart]
Time can't speed up or slow down, so it doesn't seem to be a 'process' [Le Poidevin]
If time passes, presumably it passes at one second per second [Maudlin]
What is time's passage relative to, and how fast does it pass? [Bardon]
It is meaningless to measure the rate of time using time itself, and without a rate there is no flow [Baron/Miller]