Robinson's Podcast3 Aug 2025

256 - Tim Maudlin: A Masterclass on the Philosophy of Time

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s eighth appearance on the show. His second to last appeared on episode 246 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of the philosophy of time. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, fundamentality, simultaneity, time’s flow, rate, and limits, connections to physics, time travel, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:01 “What Is” Questions

00:06:09 Everyday Misconceptions About Simultaneity

00:15:12 The Relativity of Duration

00:20:19 Is Time Fundamental?

00:28:55 Does Time Exist at Quantum Scales?

00:40:19 Is Quantum Mechanics Complete?

00:50:16 What Is Time-Reversal Invariance?

01:01:01 Parity Violations

01:11:46 What Is Metaphysics?

01:22:16 Does Time Have A Rate of Passage?

01:25:02 Does Time Flow?

01:27:04 What Does Time Really Measure?

01:29:15 Is There a Limit to How Accurately Clocks Can Measure Time?

01:33:06 Is Time Continuous or Discrete?

01:36:36 On Zeno’s Paradoxes of Motion

01:44:08 Is Time Discrete?

01:51:14 Did Time Have a Beginning?

02:02:41 Stephen Hawking on Time

02:05:39 David Albert’s Past Hypothesis

02:14:13 The Debate Between Presentism and Eternalism

02:23:16 Lee Smolin’s Black Hole Theory

02:24:46 A Shortcoming of the Standard Model

02:26:05 Arrival Time and Time of Flight

02:34:51 Arrival Time Experiments and Bell’s Inequality

02:46:07 The Black Hole Information Paradox

02:56:27 Is Time Travel Back to the Dinosaurs Possible?

02:58:34 A Rant on Aliens

03:03:35 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.

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