Tim Maudlin: A Masterclass on the Philosophy of Time

Video Description

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s eighth appearance on the show. His second to last appeared on episode 246 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of the philosophy of time. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, fundamentality, simultaneity, time’s flow, rate, and limits, connections to physics, time travel, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life. Tim’s Website: ⁠www.tim-maudlin.site⁠ The John Bell Institute: ⁠https://www.johnbellinstitute.org⁠ OUTLINE 00:00:00 Introduction 00:06:09 Everyday Misconceptions About Simultaneity 00:15:12 The Relativity of Duration 00:28:55 Does Time Exist at Quantum Scales? 00:40:19 Is Quantum Mechanics Complete? 00:50:16 What Is Time-Reversal Invariance? 01:01:01 Parity Violations 01:11:46 What Is Metaphysics? 01:22:16 Does Time Have A Rate of Passage? 01:29:15 Is There a Limit to How Accurately Clocks Can Measure Time? 01:36:36 On Zeno’s Paradoxes of Motion 01:44:08 Is Time Discrete? 01:51:14 Did Time Have a Beginning? 02:02:41 Stephen Hawking on Time 02:14:13 The Debate Between Presentism and Eternalism 02:23:16 Lee Smolin’s Black Hole Theory 02:34:51 Arrival Time Experiments and Bell’s Inequality 02:46:07 The Black Hole Information Paradox 02:56:27 Is Time Travel Back to the Dinosaurs Possible? 02:58:34 A Rant on Aliens 03:03:35 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics Robinson’s Website: ⁠http://robinsonerhardt.com⁠ Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.