The incompatibility of STR and the tensed theory of time

Quentin Smith

pp. 153-156

in: L. N. Oaklander (ed), The importance of time, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

Many philosophers think that the Special Theory of Relativity is compatible with the tensed or A-theory of time ("mind-independent temporal becoming"). They have argued that the future can be indeterminate or future relative to a reference frame. However, "relative futurity" is not a tensed or A-determination, but a relation that obtains in a B-series in a universe in which the tenseless theory of time (temporal features consist only of earlier than, later than and simultaneity) is true. I shall argue this point in this paper.