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What is time?  We may not fully understand it, but we do know this: time has some very odd qualities.  Today, we discuss our current understanding the philosophy of time.

So what makes time so strange?  It’s not like the other dimensions.  It only flows in one direction.  We can go forward into the future, but we can never step backwards into the past.  Some people experience time slower or faster than others. Philosophers have been thinking about the nature of time for centuries.  How do these ideas stand up to modern physics?  Do things in the past, like dinosaurs and Abraham Lincoln, exist, or are just the things around us in the now part of reality?  What came before the Big Bang?  What determines how fast clocks run?  And if nothing happens, does time even pass at all?  Is how we experience time a fundamental characteristic of the Universe, or is it unique to us, the finite humans that we are?  

Today we are joined by Dr. Jonathan Tallant, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham to discuss the science and philosophy of time.

It’s about time we had this podcast.