Philosophy

This paper will focus on time travel objections of which I will narrow on to, you cant change the past objection. By so doling I will be siding with metaphysical heirs who think that truth and reality are eternal and stable. Time travel has been described as the departure from a certain location at a given time to an earlier time but at the same place. This is termed as a B-movie scenario which has been strongly opposed by the physical theory which states that time can only flow in one direction. Time travel into the past is concomitant with time travel into the future. Therefore, by looking at time travel into the past, I cannot fail to link it with the future (Greg 55-70).

Time travel has been perceived as an impossible event as it would make it possible for one to change the past. Tims journey does not necessarily involve transforming the past. This is because it is very difficult to change the past as it is to change the future. According to Smart, it would not be rational if one talked of changing the future as it would also make no sense if one talked about the about changing the past. While looking at the past, we focus on what has already happened but when we look at the future the focus is on what is likely to happen. In both facets, nothing can be done as one has no control over events that happened in the past or that are going to happen in the future (Greg ). 

Time travel into the past is strongly opposed based on the fact that since we cannot inundate with future tourists. For one time travel into the past lacks a well defined destination. This destination is not real as it is not in existence. What is in existence is the present which should be embraced. The past is fixed and though it might seem accessible, past events cannot be modified. This view has been backed up by Aristotle in his remark that the past cannot even be changed by God who is the controller of all things. The past therefore is inaccessible as there is clearly defined destination on which one should go (Greg 57).

Time is designed in such a manner that is moving forward. Therefore, in regards to time travel, one is forced to change ones position with time. By travelling back into space is spatial and temporal as it does not follow the assigned and acknowledged order of events. By going back, a disruption in the order of events is caused where the past is assigned two locations. Otherwise the current is contradicted in relation to preceding and succeeding time. This is as noted by Ayer who says that it is self-contradictory if the same event is assigned two distinct places (Greg ). 

Travelling back in time needs a Parmenidean world which is stretched in the sphere of time as well as, an extension into space. This is contrary to the belief that all that is required is a successive order of events merely isolated from each other by asymmetrical amounts of time. Time travel into the past entails a double occupancy short coming and with this it becomes difficult to set two motions at the same place and at the same time. By going back into the past does not mean that the world will stand still. Instead it will involve two simultaneous actions where there will be forward as well as a backward motion. It is however not possible to have a zigzag aggregate in the aspect of time (Greg 1999).  

Despite the fact that it is not sensible to converse about changing the past, it would be effective if one considered affecting the past instead. This would be by changing the perception of our past actions if we feel that the past would have been different had another action been taken. The past only enables us to make a decision as per the present events. We might have wanted an event to occur in certain way but since it did occur in that particular way, our hands are tight in relation to the outcome. However, due to past mistakes we can now make informed choices to change the outcome of a similar event in the past (Greg 63-64). 
Cause always comes before an effect. Therefore, once an effect in regard to a particular cause has occurred, it becomes impossible to control this cause. With time travel, there is need of reverse causation where one intends to reverse the cause-effect relationship. Ayer has said that it is not clearly established as to how something that was not of existence before would later on exert a causal influence into something that has already happened (Greg 63-64).

We cannot assume the fact that time is fixed and there is no eternal order that dictates the way events do unfold. The present is what counts as it is already there and real. Just the same way Lewis says that there is no clear alternative result that prevails in the present time this can therefore be likened to the fact that there is also no alternative to changing what already happened in the past.

An instance of time travel is where Tim who is in 2000 decides to go back to the year 1920 on a mission to kill his grandfather, but he cannot. Why Because it is impossible to alter the order of events as they happen. To change a past event entails altering the order of causation which is not possible.

     From what I have derived, it is not possible to travel back into the past and change past events. What is of importance is the current order of events. Just the same way that the future cannot be changed, the past is not alterable as well. Though the past appears accessible and some people even propose a time machine, this is just fiction. There is no way that events can turn around and much less at an instant.