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J.M.E. McTaggart

J.M.E. McTaggart was a British philosopher known for his influential ideas on the nature of time. He argued that time is fundamentally an illusion, proposing two ways to understand time: the "A-series" (past, present, future) and the "B-series" (events ordered by their relations). McTaggart claimed the A-series is contradictory because it requires an event to change its status from future to present to past. Therefore, he concluded that since time cannot be coherently understood, it does not exist in the way we commonly perceive it. His work has sparked extensive debate in the philosophy of time.

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    J. M. E. McTaggart was a British philosopher best known for his ideas on time and reality. He argued that time is not real because our understanding of it relies on two perspectives: the "A-series," which sees time as past, present, and future, and the "B-series," which orders events but ignores their temporal qualities. McTaggart claimed that the A-series leads to contradictions, suggesting that time is an illusion. His work challenges how we think about existence and the nature of time, influencing philosophical discussions in metaphysics and logic.