| Time and Reality |  |
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Alba Papa-Grimaldi |
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Below you will also find publishers notes on my book Time and Reality and a couple of sample chapters. There is also a link to buy from Amazon! As with many philosophy texts it is unfortunately rather pricey (~£45) - this was beyond my control and I realise it may be expensive for many students etc. If you are interested in the book please contact me and I can arrange to send you a "soft" electronic copy free of charge. |
| Some publications: Temporal Relations vs. Logical Reduction: A Phenomenal Theory of Causality Axiomathes, Volume 18, Number 3/339-358, September, 2008 Abstract Kant, in various parts of his treatment of causality, refers to determinism or the principle of sufficient reason as an inescapable principle. In fact, in the Second Analogy we find the elements to reconstruct a purely phenomenal determinism as a logical and tautological truth. I endeavour in this article to gather these elements into an organic theory of phenomenal causality and then show, in the third section, with a specific argument which I call the “paradox of phenomenal observation”, that this phenomenal determinism is the only rational approach to causality because any logico-reductivistic approach, such as the Humean one, would destroy the temporal order and so the very possibility to talk of a causal relation. I also believe that, all things said, Kant did not achieve a much greater comprehension of the problem than Hume did, in his theory of causality, for he did not free a phenomenal approach from the impasse of reductivism as his reflections on “simultaneous causation” and “vanishing quantities” indeed show, and this I will argue in Sect. 4 of this article. Keywords : Causality - Kant - Simultaneous causation - Paradox of phenomenal observation - Cause and effect - Hume secret powers
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Abstract The conceptualisation of movement has always been problematical for Western thought, ever since Parmenides declared our incapacity to conceptualise the plurality of change because our self-identical thought can only know an identical being. Exploiting this peculiar feature and constraint on our thought, Zeno of Elea devised his famous paradoxes of movement in which he shows that the passage from a position to movement cannot be conceptualised. In this paper, I argue that this same constraint is at the root of our incapacity to conceptualise the unseen movement at the micro-level and that the aporetic idea of super-position far from opening the gate on a deeper reality is a symptomatic word for this lack of understanding. Keywords : Zeno - Movement - Reality - Parmenides - Causality - Quantum reality - EPR - Einstein Podolsky Rosen - Quantum physics - Zeno's paradoxes
------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Introduction. In this paper I will argue that when subjected to a rigorous analysis, the concept of event - the concept of something happening - is somehow incompatible with the concept of time - conceived of as duration. As a consequence of this, I will argue that what "really" takes place cannot take place in time. A "real" happening cannot have a duration. The sense in which I use "real" here, is the sense in which a strong Realism uses the term: real as opposed to phenomenal. The argument which follows aims to prove that our thought cannot conceptualise real change, but that every time thought attempts to pick out change, it can only collapse into a description of further states. The argument will throw a light on the nature of our knowledge. It will show that ultimately, we cannot talk about what really takes place, but can only offer descriptions of processes in which change is assumed. Change can never be picked out as it really happens. Download full article ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Why Mathematical Solutions Of Zeno's Paradoxes Miss The Point: Zeno's One And Many Relation And Parmenides' Prohibition The Review of Metaphysics 50 (December 1996): 299-314. MATHEMATICAL RESOLUTIONS OF ZENO's PARADOXES of motion have been offered on a regular basis since the paradoxes were first formulated. In this paper I will argue that such mathematical "solutions" miss, and always will miss, the point of Zeno's arguments. I do not think that any mathematical solution can provide the much sought after answers to any of the paradoxes of Zeno. In fact all mathematical attempts to resolve these paradoxes share a common feature, a feature that makes them consistently miss the fundamental point which is Zeno's concern for the one-many relation, or it would be better to say, lack of relation. This takes us back to the ancient dispute between the Eleatic school and the Pluralists. The first, following Parmenide's teaching, claimed that only the One or identical can be thought and is therefore real, the second held that the Many of becoming is rational and real. I will show that these mathematical "solutions" do not actually touch Zeno's argument and make no metaphysical contribution to the problem of understanding what is motion against immobility, or multiplicity against identity, which was Zeno's challenge. Download full article |
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Alba Papa-Grimaldi Time and Reality finds the leitmotiv of Western epistemology in the dichotomy of unity and plurality, features both inherent in the structure of our mind. It singles out this dichotomy as being responsible for the major paradoxes and puzzlements of our epistemology. Chiefly the paradoxes of movement, both in the macroworld (Zeno's paradoxes) and in the microworld (quantum physics' paradoxes of measurement). This unveils a profound coherence in our epistemology though disenchantedly shows it to be trapped in the dichotomy of unity and plurality from the very start of its engagement with the world to our present days. Contents Reviews
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