Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy by Bob Doyle

Author:Bob Doyle [Doyle, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I-Phi Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Special Relativity and the Block Universe

Einstein might have been surprised to find that several philosophers use his theory of special relativity to prove determinism, but he would not have been surprised to learn that they fail. Einstein was as strong a believer in determinism as any scientist. If he thought his special theory of relativity could be used to prove determinism, he surely would have done so.

Since the 1960’s, several philosophers have thought that they could prove that determinism is true because of the special theory of relativity. They include J. J. C. SMART, C.W. RIETDIJK, HILARY PUTNAM, ROGER PENROSE, MICHAEL LOCKWOOD, and MICHAEL LEVIN. [4]

The basic idea behind using the special theory of relativity to prove determinism is that time can be treated mathematically as a fourth dimension. This gives us excellent results for experiments on moving objects. It predicts the strange Lorentz contraction of objects in space and dilations of clock speeds for observers in fast moving frames of reference (coordinate systems).

In Figure 15-1, observers A and B are moving toward one another at high speed. At the current time, they are at events A0 and B0. B1 is an event that is in B’s future. It is in a timelike separation from B0 . Special relativity says that A sees the event B1 as happening “now” in A’s fast-moving frame of reference. A0 and B1 are happening at the same time. But notice that, like the current events A0 and B0, the two events that A thinks are happening “now” are in a spacelike separation. There can be no causal connection from A0 to B1.

Similarly, B sees the event A1 as synchronous with the event B0 by his clocks. But any “influence” of B0 on A1 would have to move faster than the speed of light, which is impossible.

These philosophers jump to the unacceptable conclusion that the time dimension is like space and so the “future is already out there.” Any event that is going to happen has already happened,.

This is a special relativistic version of DIODORUS CRONUS’ ancient notion of actualism, only what actually will happen could ever happen.

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