Arrow of time in the philosophy of Henry Mehlberg

Abstract

The arrow of time problem belongs to the most discussed questions of the contemporary philosophy of physics. Some aspects of this problem are discussed in this paper in the context of Henry Mehlberg's philosophical views. Mehlberg devoted a significant part of his work to the enigma of time. He argues that all major empirical theories are invariant with respect to time reversal. In the present paper, the difference between temporal isotropy as expressed in the everyday language and in scientific theories is first presented, then Mehlberg's arguments on behalf of temporal symmetry are analyzed and, finally, some philosophical implications of arrowless time are discussed.