Pub Lecture Dr. Gijsbers: ‘Velocity and the Present’

On April 17th from 18:30 to 21:30, Dr. Gijsbers will give a lecture entitled ‘Velocity and the Present’ at de Vergulde Kruik.

Zeno’s paradox of the arrow asks us to consider an arrow at a single moment during its flight. There it is, hanging in mid-air. What is the difference, at that moment, between the flying arrow and an arrow that is at rest? Does the flying arrow occupy a slightly larger space than the arrow that is at rest? No, it does not. Nor is there any other observable difference between the two arrows. The difference at this moment between a flying arrow and an arrow at rest is… nothing. Perhaps surprisingly, most contemporary philosophers who have thought about velocity agree with Zeno. Of course, they do not draw the conclusion that motion is impossible, as Zeno does. But they do claim that velocity is not truly ‘had’ at a single moment. Rather, having a velocity simply is being at different locations at different times.

Dr. Gijsbers will argue that this theory of velocity is highly counter-intuitive. And he has another reason to look for an alternative. For he believes that the past and the future have no reality independently of the present; that, therefore, there are strictly speaking no other moments than the present. We don’t need the past and the future so that objects in the present can have a velocity; rather, we need velocities in the present so that we can have a past and a future! In this talk, Dr. Gijsbers will work out the details of this proposal, arguing that the dynamic properties of the present define what it is to be our past or our future, and — as an added bonus — that free will means the past cannot be fully determinate.