The Origin of A Time-Travel Dialogue
In the spring semester of 2000, Dr. John Carroll of North Carolina State University taught an undergraduate course in metaphysics that was structured around the question of whether time travel is possible. Traditional metaphysical issues, such as causation, identity over time and free will, were addressed vis-a-vis this pedagogically unifying question. During the semester, the class was broken up into groups which in turn wrote various parts of a dialogue whose structure was based on that of John Perry’s A Dialogue on Personal Identity and Immortality (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1978). Dr. Carroll and four students from that class (authors Beth Ehrlich, Kevin Harrison, Stuart Miller, and Nathan Sasser) continued to refine and rework this dialogue in an independent study course during the fall 2000 semester. In the spring semesters of 2002 and 2003, Dr. Carroll taught a total of four more versions of this course. The students of these courses were given the opportunity to add to the work that was already done by doing substantial rewriting of the existing dialogue or adding discussions of new topics. In the Fall 2002, Dr. Carroll and three students from these two classes (authors Steven Carpenter, Stephen Sutton, and Robert Todd) took the dialogue to close to its present state. In 2003, author Laura Wingler contributed a substantial rewrite of the final day of the dialogue. The ultimate goal of this ongoing project is to produce a dialogue suitable as an introductory text on time travel for undergraduate students of metaphysics. Though many, many other students made important contributions, special mention is due Chris Streshe for his work on presentism, David Schlorff for his work on the grandfather paradox, and Jay Hodges for his work on causal loops.
Note from John W. Carroll (1/6/04):
The dialogue is a work by my students. I have been closely involved by virtue of being the one to expose the students to the metaphysics of time-travel and in doing the editing needed to make all the different student contributions fit together into a coherent whole. Still, the students have done the bulk of the work.
I think you will find that it is extraordinary student work. The authors are a group of especially bright students, several of them NCSU honors students and many with multiple undergraduate degrees. The combination of their abilities, their devotion, and their senses of humor has produced something remarkable. I recommend the dialogue to other philosophy students, to professional philosophers looking for a class resource, and to anyone who just enjoys thinking carefully about the paradoxes of time travel.
I hold the copyright. This seemed the most appropriate approach given my role in the development of the dialogue and that authors move on and new ones join in. The authors and I have agreed that should the opportunity arise for me to publish the dialogue in some form other than making it freely available on the web, then I would also see to it that any proceeds would be directed back to NC State University in some manner that directly benefits students. You are welcome to recommend this page to others but I ask that the dialogue only be used for educational purposes. We welcome constructive comments and criticisms.
Enjoy!
John
Professor of Philosophy
Department of Philosophy and Religion
North Carolina State University
CLICK HERE TO VIEW A TIME-TRAVEL DIALOGUE