Stefan Bernegger

This work investigates whether the passage and direction of time are fundamental features of reality or emergent phenomena. Bridging physical theory with philosophy of time, the work reviews the treatment of time in classical mechanics, thermodynamics, and Einstein's special and general relativity, highlighting the constraints of human perception compared to the scales of the observable universe. The core of this work focuses on a critical discussion of Tim Maudlin's argument for a fundamental direction of time, which links the dynamics of time to the structure of spacetime itself. Through a rigorous analysis of physical assumptions, this work rebuts Maudlin's position, arguing that a fundamental direction of time cannot be inferred from current physical laws. Instead, the findings suggest that the direction of time is an emergent phenomenon, driven by increasing entropy, aligning with a B-theory of spacetime.