Temporal structure of the world

Abstract

The thesis starts from the position of Ontic Structural Realism, which holds that the world just is structure, and from the ontology of Rainforest Realism in which the only things that exist are (Dennettian) real patterns. I argue that the temporal structure of the world emerges from the temporal aspect of spacetime and consists in real patterns of time existing at different ontological scales. Such scale relativity of ontology allows the temporal structure of the world to display very different features. At the scale of instants and of extremely small duration, I argue that there is non-dynamic, tenseless structure to which the earlier than relation may be applied. At the scale of larger duration, I argue that there occurs robust objective becoming that just is dynamic composition of larger-scale material structure (as real patterns) – initiating a real, tensed, passage of time. Thus, something akin to a Block Universe can be found at the very small scales of time, from which emerges the dynamic world of our experience.