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Abstract

Stuff happens. It’s hard to think of a more general description of reality. We picture the universe as some set of processes that start in some state and evolve to some other state, and this idea of an evolving, time-directed universe acts as a backdrop the stories we give for how and why things happen in the world. And yet, despite being widespread through our philosophical and scientific thinking, this picture of time is surprisingly poorly motivated. This talk sets out the variety of motivations for, and implications of, a directionless theory of time — the ‘C-theory’ of time. I set out different understandings of the C-theory, detailing what it means to say time lacks a direction, and what this entails for our understanding of causation and explanation.