Absolute Time: Rifts in Early Modern British Metaphysics - Hardcover

Thomas, Emily

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198807937 ISBN 13: 9780198807933

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2018

Synopsis

What is time? This is one of the most fundamental questions we can ask. Traditionally, the answer was that time is a product of the human mind, or of the motion of celestial bodies. In the mid-seventeenth century, a new kind of answer emerged: time or eternal duration is 'absolute', in the sense that it is independent of human minds and material bodies.
Emily Thomas explores the development of absolute time or eternal duration during one of Britain's richest and most creative metaphysical periods, from the 1640s to the 1730s. She introduces an interconnected set of main characters - Henry More, Walter Charleton, Isaac Barrow, Isaac Newton, John Locke, Samuel Clarke, and John Jackson - alongside a large and varied supporting cast, whose metaphysical views are all read in their historical context and given a place in the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century development of thought about time.
In addition to interpreting the metaphysics of these thinkers, Absolute Time advances two general, developmental theses. First, the complexity of positions on time (and space) defended in early modern thought is hugely under-appreciated. Second, distinct kinds of absolutism emerged in British philosophy, helping us to understand why some absolutists considered time to be barely real, whilst others identified it with the most real being of all: God.

About this title

About the Author:

Emily Thomas is Lecturer in Philosophy at Durham University. She completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge (2013) and held a postdoc at the University of Groningen (2013-2016) before arriving at Durham. She mostly works on space and time in the history of philosophy, and is especially fond of excavating the work of philosophically rich but understudied figures.

Review:

"Thomas's book contains a number of productive discussions, and it could prove a catalyst for further investigations into early modern spatiotemporal metaphysics." -- Edward Slowik, Journal of the History of Philosophy

"this is a fascinating book. Whether you agree or disagree with any particular thesis in it, it will make you rethink, look afresh at familiar writings, and with interest at unfamiliar ones" -- J. J. MacIntosh, H-Albion

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 0198807937
• ISBN 13: 9780198807933
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256