Name: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space
Rating: 3.38 (3 reviews)
ISBN: 9780231061339

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An Introduction to the Philosophy of Time and Space

Bas C. Van Fraassen

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An introductory, historical survey of philosophical positions on space and time, through the special theory of relativity and the causal theory of time.

GenresPhilosophy

240 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1992

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About the author

Bastiaan Cornelis van Fraassen is a Dutch-American philosopher noted for his seminal contributions to philosophy of science. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University and the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University.

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

Manuel

53 reviews

November 8, 2014

This is an excellent book on the subject of time and space, particularly the former. This work was meant as an introduction, but it packs in more information than your usual introductory book. I would recommend it to those who have some previous knowledge of the debates about time and space and some rudimentary knowledge of basic mathematics (functions, sets, a bit of calculus, etc.). The writing is clear and, best of all, there is a lot of science discussion here. You will not find any phenomenalism or linguistic philosophy in this volume (there's nothing from McTaggart, for instance), which I think seriously detract from the treatment of the subject. I do have one criticism and one caveat, however. The criticism is that the nature of space (absolute vs. relational) received less attention than the nature of time. The first half of the books is all about time. Then there is a chapter on space before we move on to the special theory of relativity, in which the main concern is space-time. The last chapter is once again mainly concerned with time. In the chapter on space, non-Euclidean geometries are dealt with at some length, but then fall off the discussion in later chapters. The caveat is that chapters 5 and 6, dealing with relativity and its implications, are quite detailed and technical. The mathematical formulae are not, it seems to me, beyond the abilities of the non-specialist; I've read heavier treatments of Einstein's theory. But you will have to come back to those chapters a few times to really understand the issues.

Brian Beakley

18 reviews4 followers

August 10, 2012

A fun book: an introductory, historical survey of philosophical positions on space and time, through the special theory of relativity and the causal theory of time.