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Two-dimensional time

macbeath's "time's square" and special relativity

Daniel King

pp. 421-428

Abstract

Murray MacBeath, in his essay ``Time's Square'', describes a fictitious scenariowhere various physical observations made by the participants would, he claims, invitethe interpretation that time for them is two-dimensional. In the present paper, however, Iargue that such observations come close to underdetermining the hypothesis of time's twodimensionality;for a rival hypothesis - that, under certain circumstances, the observationscan be explained in terms of the familiar time dilation effects predicted by special relativity- almost fits the evidence as well. That is, under certain (albeit artificial) circumstances theworld can already behave almost as though it were temporally two-dimensional.

Publication details

Published in:

(2004) Synthese 139 (3).

Pages: 421-428

DOI: 10.1023/B:SYNT.0000024890.87641.60

Full citation:

King Daniel (2004) „Two-dimensional time: macbeath's "time's square" and special relativity“. Synthese 139 (3), 421–428.