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The Paradoxes of Time Travel edit
The Paradoxes of Time Travel is an article written by David Lewis (philosopher). In this article, the author discusses and arguably solves some of the philosophical paradoxes relating to the idea of time travel. The author initiates the article with his famous saying, “The paradoxes of time travel are oddities, not impossibilities.” The author claims it is possible to provide consistent explanations of some science fiction portrayals of time travel.
The Paradoxes edit
David Lewis (Philosopher) discusses three types of paradoxes relating to time travel in this article. The paradoxes are about time, identity, and backward causation.
The Paradox of Time edit
A regular traveler experiences a journey where the travel duration connects their departure and arrival. However, for a time traveler, the time span between departure and arrival doesn't necessarily match the duration of the journey. This indicates a contradiction of time in the idea of time travel. David Lewis solves this problem by asserting that time can be distinguished into two types- time itself or external time and the personal time of a particular time traveler. While time is objective for everyone, personal time runs with specific persons. For a regular person, the external and personal times are the same. On the other hand, a time traveler's personal time is different from time itself. That means a sentence like “Soon he will be in the past” makes sense because "soon" should be understood in terms of both external time and the personal time of the time traveler, while the word "past" has different meanings in terms of external time and the personal time of the time traveler. This solution has been appreciated by contemporary philosophers such as Alyssa Ney (Philosophy).
The Paradox of Identity edit
When a time traveler engages in a conversation with himself, possibly over the telephone, it appears that two distinct individuals are communicating. Why should we perceive him as a singular person rather than two? This constitutes the paradox of identity in the idea of time travel. David Lewis attempts to resolve this problem by explaining that the time traveler is connected to his past and future selves through mental continuity, just like any other person. The difference between an ordinary person and a time traveler is that while the former maintains a continuous relationship with external time, a time traveler's continuity is exclusive to their personal timeline.
The Grandfather Paradox edit
The Grandfather Paradox is a hypothetical situation by which Lewis illustrates the problem of backward time traveling. In Lewis’s version of the paradox, he introduces Tim, who wants to go back to the past to kill his grandfather at his (grandfather’s) young age. Tim buys a time machine and goes back to 1921. He even buys a gun and practices shooting for killing his grandfather. It appears that if Tim kills his grandfather, that will involve a contradiction. It is because if Tim’s grandfather dies at a young age, Tim’s father will not be born, and consequently, Tim will not be born. If Tim does not exist, how could he travel back in time and kill his grandfather? Lewis provides two alternative solutions to resolve the paradox.
In his first solution, Lewis notes that Tim can go to the past and prepare himself for shooting his grandfather. Lewis argues there is no contradiction in that. However, whether Tim can kill his grandfather or not can be answered in two ways. This is so because “can” can be interpreted in two senses. In one sense, Tim can kill his grandfather, meaning that Tim has the ability to kill his grandfather. His preparation to shoot his grandfather is consistent with this conclusion. However, in another sense, Tim cannot kill his grandfather because that would require a violation of the law of causation. Therefore, something will happen, and Tim will fail to kill his grandfather. It is up to us which set of facts we consider relevant and whether Tim can kill his grandfather.
David Lewis's second solution engages with his idea of possible worlds. If there are possible worlds that are disconnected not in terms of space or time but in some other way, we could argue that Tim can kill his grandfather by going to a possible world.
References edit
<Lewis, David (1976). "The paradoxes oarXiv:gr-qc/9603042f time travel" (PDF). American Philosophical Quarterly. 13: 145–52. arXiv:gr-qc/9603042. Bibcode:1996gr.qc.....3042K. Archived (PDF) from the original on August 28, 2017. Retrieved September 6, 2010>