The Open Future and The Causally Open Objective Present

This research project investigates the problem of the open future from a philosophical viewpoint. The future seems to be open in a way the past is not. We say that there is no use crying over spilled milk because we think that there is nothing we can do about the past. The past is fixed and cannot be changed. On the other hand, we tend to think that the future is made of a myriad of possibilities, and it is now unsettled how the future will turn out to be. Unlike the past, the future is open and yet to be decided. But what does this distinction between the fixed past and the open future amount to precisely? Why is there such a difference between the past and the future, and what are the causes that ground and explain this difference? This research projects aims exactly at answering these foundational and philosophical questions. Some argue that the difference between the past and the future is due to the fundamental laws of nature. The future, it is said, is open because the laws of nature allow more than one possible future which is compatible with the laws of nature and the past. Others argue that the openness of the future is due to the direction of time. It is because time moves from the past to the future that the nature of past and future are different in terms of openness. Others say that the difference between the past and the future is ontological. The past exists, whereas the future does not (yet) exists. Hence the former is fixed, whereas the latter is open. This project aims at investigating further these questions and proposing a novel approach to this debate. According to the main idea behind this research project, what makes the future open is the metaphysically privileged status of the objective present. On this view, the present is causally receptive, as it is taken to be the temporal locus where events that were not determined by the past and the laws of nature can occur and consequently alter the future. The project aims at developing a new philosophical theory of the open future that advances our understanding of the problem of the open future.