Themoving spotlight theory of time is atheory of time which says that the complete history of the world exists (in much the same sense asthe block universe, that is, past, present, and future all exist), but that there is an absolute, objective present moment.[1] On this view, what is present really changes as time passes. This is a "moving spotlight" theory because the objective present "moves" through the block analogous to how a spotlight might traverse (e.g.) a row of houses in a street. This view is suggested, though not endorsed, byC.D. Broad in hisScientific Thought (1923). (Broad endorsesthe growing block theory of time, though this view can trace it roots further back toSamuel Alexander.[2])
Moving spotlight theory and growing block theory are both taken as intermediary positions between eitherpresentism andeternalism, or theA-theory andB-theory of time. It is common to see the moving spotlight theory described as a "non-presentist A-theory."[3] The moving spotlight theory accepts the dynamic thesis of the A-theory that time really passes, what is objectively present changes, and accepts the staticontology of the B-theory that past, present, and future entities exist: the totality of what exists does not change.[4]
According to Ross Cameron and Daniel Deasy, the label "moving spotlight theory" encompasses at least three distinct views in the contemporary debate in thephilosophy of time:[5] the traditional moving spotlight theory, due to Broad, which can be understood as an enrichedB-theory of time; permanentist propositional temporalism, due to Meghan Sullivan[6] and Deasy,[7] which combines permanentism (always, everything always exists) and temporalism, the view thatpropositions can change truth-values over time;[8] and, a form of enrichedpresentism, due to Cameron.[9] Other variations of the theory have been put forward.[10][11]
The moving spotlight theory can be extended to cover not only the distinction between one time and another, but also the distinction between one consciousness and another.[12] A variant of this theory is a principal component of the plot ofFred Hoyle's novelOctober the First Is Too Late, which combines the idea of the moving spotlight withopen individualism.
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