I am taking a metafysics class1 and last lectur’s topic was time travel. That is an issu i sort of like but i dislike the way people discuss it, in general. Ther is a widespred lack of clarity and lack of training in the relevant logics (that is, modal logics: alethic logic and temporal logic). A fine example of that is the first essay below.
John M. E. Mctaggart – Time Is Not Real
David Lewis The Paradoxes Of Time Travel
The followup essay (2nd abov) is certainly better than the first but not quite clear enof to my taste. I do generally agree with Lewis tho. I advice people interested in the subject to lern alethic logic (S5) and read the following materials.
http://www.sfu.ca/~swartz/time_travel1.htm
http://www.sfu.ca/~swartz/beyond_experience/index.htm Chapter 8.
And for those who like fiction about time travel and wants to see som fiction with time travel that seems to be non-contradictory.
Robert A. Heinlein – Time enough for love_ the lives of Lazarus Long
Robert A. Heinlein – All You Zombies
Notes
1Well, tecnically, i signed up for it but never turned up so far. I blame the timing. They put it at 0900, and even on the same day as another class (filosofical logic) altho not the same time. But it still implys that if i want to attend both lectures, then i hav to spend a lot of time on the university in one day. But i disfeel like spending that much time, unless ther is alcohol involved. :)