White, Anaïs Rebecca;
(2021)
The Openness and Closure of the Past and Future.
Masters thesis (M.Phil.Stud), UCL (University College London).
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Abstract
In this thesis I investigate the claim that the future is in some sense ‘open’, with a view to giving a lucid and useful definition that is currently absent in the literature. To do this, I propose a four-part taxonomy to explain the senses that the future might be open for closed: ontological, nomic, semantic, and epistemological. This approach allows me to do two things: firstly, I systematically investigate each sense of openness towards both the past and future, noting both the logical possibility and plausibility of their combinations along with any temporal asymmetries they may be used to justify. I argue that we should consider any account of openness holistically by specifying a position of openness or closure for each of these senses, and develop a framework for doing this. Each sense of openness and closure has corresponding philosophical views, and I explore their impact on the plausibility of combination with other senses. This generates new insights into both the views themselves and the commitments to combinations of openness and closure they entail.
| Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | M.Phil.Stud |
| Title: | The Openness and Closure of the Past and Future |
| Event: | UCL (University College London) |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2021. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Dept of Philosophy |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10129942 |
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