Time and Free Will: An Essay on the Immediate Data of Consciousness
I have time, save time, spend time, waste time, write, and teach time. I am fascinated with the question of time both as a cosmological phenomenon and as an aspect that is inseparable from our existence. I channeled this fascination into a PhD dissertation, books, and articles examining the relationship between time and human existence. But like Saint Augustine, I am still baffled by the question of time and like him: "If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it …, I do not know."
The essential theme of my research is the deformalization of the notion of time,' asserted Emmanuel Levinas in a 1988 interview, toward the end of his long philosophical career. But while the notion of time is fundamental to the development of every key theme in Levinas's thought - the idea of the infinite, the issue of the alterity of the other, the face of the other, the question of our ethical relations with other people, the role of fecundity, speech and language, and radical responsibility - his view of time remains obscure.
Yael Lin's exhaustive look at Levinas's primary texts, both his philosophical writings and his writings on Judaism, brings together his various perspectives on time. Lin concludes that we can, indeed, extract a coherent and consistent conception of time from Levinas's thought, one that is distinctly political.
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5,215 authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about spacetime, cosmology, and philosophy.
We think you will like Time's Arrow and Archimedes' Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time, The Order of Time, and The Direction of Time if you like this list.
From Craig's list on The best books on time for people who love physics and deep thinking.
Price is a philosopher and this book, along with Paul Horwich’s Asymmetries in Time and David Albert’s Time and Chance, are heirs of Reichenbach’s masterpiece. I select Price’s book here because it is more accessible than Horwich’s or Albert’s books. It is packed with fun and deep stuff: criticism of Hawking’s cosmology, exploration of the electromagnetic arrow of time, and serious discussion of wild ideas like causation going backward in time.
From Adrian's list on The best books on time and our perception of time.
The ultimate answer to the nature of the universe depends on quantum physics. Most proposed solutions to the problem of quantum gravity either eliminate time altogether or downgrade it to a merely emergent property of a fundamentally timeless system. Leading theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli draws a picture as to how we might understand time (or the lack thereof) through the lens of quantum physics. He finishes by proposing that our perception of time really has to do with emotion and our individual relation to events.
From Craig's list on The best books on time for people who love physics and deep thinking.
Most academics have played the game David Lodge calls “Humiliations” in his novel Changing Places: you have to list books that you should have read but didn’t, the more scandalous the better. For a while, Reichenbach’s book was my go-to. I was writing my PhD on the direction of time but hadn’t read Reichenbach. Because it was old I figured I indirectly knew everything in it. Holy moly was I wrong! Not only is The Direction of Time the first serious blend of good philosophy and physics tackling the direction of time — plus a great example of the type of philosophy I deeply value — but it is still packed with insights. No question, I should have read it earlier in my life.