Abstract

The main reason for believing that time passes is that experience seems to tell us so. But it is argued in this chapter that this is an illusion, for experience cannot truly tell us that time passes. The chapter begins by discussing recent arguments by Barry Dainton, Craig Callender, and L. A. Paul. It then discusses the question of whether our experience of the present gives us any reason to think that the present has a special metaphysical status. It then develops two arguments: the Detector Argument, which shows that experience does not favour the A-theory over the B-theory, and the Multi-Detector Argument, which shows that the passage of time could not be the object of any veridical experience. From this it is concluded that the A-theory fails to state an intelligible alternative to the B-theory, and that we should therefore accept the B-theory.