Branching time and doomsday. (7th December 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Andreoletti, Giacomo
• Is Part Of: Ratio. Volume 35:Number 2(2022)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 90
• Publication Date: 2021-12-07
• Subjects: branching time -- doomsday -- histories -- open future -- time; Philosophy -- Periodicals; Analysis (Philosophy) -- Periodicals; 105
• DOI: 10.1111/rati.12328
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0034-0006

Abstract

Abstract: Branching time is a popular theory of time that is intended to account for the openness of the future. Generally, branching time models the openness of the future by positing a multiplicity of concrete alternative futures mirroring all the possible ways the future could unfold. In the literature, a distinction is drawn among branching‐time theories: those that make use of moment‐based structures and those that employ history‐based ones. In this paper, I introduce and discuss a particular kind of openness relative to the possibility that time ends (doomsday). I then show that whereas moment‐based branching structures cannot represent this kind of openness, history‐based structures can account for it. The conclusion is that history‐based structures have an advantage over moment‐based ones.