Abstract
Tensism holds that the present moment has a special status that sets it apart from the past and the future, independently of perceivers. One of the main objections to this view has been Einstein's argument from special relativity, which aims at showing that absolute simultaneity is a myth. We argue that the moving observer in a causal variant of Einstein's original thought experiment is subject to a temporal illusion. Owing to the analogy of the cases, this casts doubt on the conjectures that there is no privileged frame of reference and that special relativity poses a problem for tensism.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 635-642 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Analysis |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 1 2013 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- absolute simultaneity
- cause-effect sequence
- presentism
- rest frame
- special relativity
- temporal illusion
- temporal passage
- tensism
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Philosophy
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Cite this
Brogaard, B., & Marlow, K. (2013). Is the relativity of simultaneity a temporal illusion? Analysis, 73(4), 635-642. https://doi.org/10.1093/analys/ant070