The Unreality of Time

JME

McTaggart

The
| Unreality
of Time

LibriVox

John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (1866-1925) was a British metaphysician and
philosophical idealist. In this famous article, first published in 1908 in the
periodical Mind, he introduced the notion of the A, B and C series, which was to
become a leading theory in explaining the nature of time. McTaggart claims that
our descriptions of time are either contradictory, circular, or insufficient, and
therefore time is unreal.

To frame his argument, he identifies two
descriptions of time, which he calls the A-
series and the B-series. The A-series identi-
fies positions in time as past, present, or
future; the B-series, as earlier than or later
than some time position. A further C-series
displays order but not the temporal relations
of the B-series.

McTaggart argues that, for various
reasons, all of these views of time are
illogical and flawed and that time is not a
VeaT phenomenon.

Read by Carl Manchester

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Total running time: 50 mins approx

Cover picture: Honore Daumier -
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza
(c. 1868), Neue Pinakothek, Munich

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