English

Neither Presentism nor Eternalism

History and Philosophy of Physics 2020-02-11 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology

Abstract

Is reality three-dimensional and becoming real (Presentism), or is reality four-dimensional and becoming illusory (Eternalism)? Both options raise difficulties. I argue that we do not need to be trapped by this dilemma. There is a third possibility: reality has a more complex temporal structure than either of these two naive options. Fundamental becoming is real, but local and unoriented. A notion of present is well defined, but only locally and in the context of approximations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1910.02474,
  title  = {Neither Presentism nor Eternalism},
  author = {Carlo Rovelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1910.02474},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

2 figures, 6 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:35:41.579Z