Behind Time

Part 1 McTaggart's philosophy: McTaggart's works; McTaggart's terms; McTaggart's system - an overview of McTaggart's system, the self (and the way it is perceived), the general nature of spiritual existence, the principle of determining correspondence; conclusion. Part 2 McTaggart's denial of the reality of time: McTaggart's argument against time - step 1 - time involves change, step 2 - change can only occur in the A series, step 3 - the A series is contradictory, problem 1 - our experience of change in the A series is wrong, problem 2 - our experience of time in the B series is wrong; it is events that happen to things that change - things themselves do not change; the vicious regress - A-terms are used at different times, A-terms used to describe A-terms are equivalent terms, a B-language is all that is necessary, the A series is all that is necessary, the B series is all that is necessary, consciousness can replace the A series; conclusion. Part 3 Time and the A series: our concept of time; the components of the A series - past, present, future; conclusion. Part 4 Some philosophical positions on time: reality of consciousness plus being; reality of becoming plus consciousness; a four-dimensional universe with no becoming; the reasonableness of atemporality; conclusion. Part 5 McTaggart's timeless world: the atemporal C series; coherence of the atemporal series; the C series can illuminate our ordinary conception of time - the inclusion series, directionality; fundamental relations between the temporal and the atemporal world; actual and apparent time; conclusion. Part 6 Conclusion.