The Paradoxes of Time Travel

Document Type : Research Paper

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Abstract

The problem of time travel has been recently dealt by philosophers as well as physicists. In the realm of philosophy, this problem is being discussed in metaphysics as well as the philosophy of action, the philosophy of language and ethics. According to Lewis’ definition, time travel will occur if the traveler’s personal time differs from the external time in magnitude. Some philosophers have found the idea of time travelling as impossible on the basis of some alleged paradoxes. In the contrast, some others have tried to solve these proposed paradoxes and endorsed the possibility of such a travel. In this paper, I examine a group of the most well-known paradoxes and their proposed solution. These paradoxes include the “nowhere paradox”, “the paradox of discrepancy”, “the paradox of backward causation”, “the paradox of changing the past” and so on. Eventually, I propose a new paradox as the paradox of identity. I conclude that in spite of some excellent theoretical efforts in order to solve these paradoxes, philosophers have much more to do to show the possibility of time travel.

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Journal of Ontological Researches
Volume 6, Issue 12
December 2017
Pages 1-21

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