Abstract

Is the future open? Even if we accept that there is an obvious difference between past and future – the future is open and the past is settled – that doesn't yet tell us how to understand the difference. From Aristotle's Sea Battle to the present day, we briefly survey the history of the debate and look at the contemporary options. Is openness a matter of there being multiple ways the future could go, or something to do with what's true about the future? Or perhaps it's about a difference in what exists? Finally, we will look at how this debate connects to questions of how we live in the present.