This paper claims that, to the extent that temporal direction figures in physics at all, it is found there as part of the extra-scientific language science employs. The asymmetry between “before” and “after” is not captured by the mathematics of any theory, nor can it be derived from the laws of any theory. This, I argue, is true even of theories whose laws are not time reversal invariant. Recognizing that physics does not yield temporal direction but receives it from the background in which physics develops and operates does not, however, expose any hitherto unknown limitations or deficiencies of physics. The claim is not about physics, but about metaphysical stances regarding physics, specifically, physicalism, which requires from physics to deliver more than it does, or should. Once the place of temporal direction in physics is understood, infamous difficulties can be addressed in a novel way. Issues emerging from the 2nd law of thermodynamics, such as the minimum problem, and the worry that the law generates outlandish predictions, are removed. A side benefit is the recognition that the past hypothesis is superfluous. A final conclusion of the paper is that the relationship between physics and everyday language, far from being a source of difficulties, is healthy and beneficial to both.

这篇论文声称，就时间方向在物理学中的重要性而言，它是作为科学使用的超科学语言的一部分被发现的。“之前”和“之后”之间的不对称不是任何理论的数学所捕捉到的，也不能从任何理论的定律中推导出来。我认为，即使对于那些定律不是时间反转不变的理论，这也是正确的。然而，承认物理学不会产生时间方向，而是从物理学发展和运作的背景中接收它，并不会暴露物理学迄今为止未知的任何局限性或缺陷。该声明不是关于物理学，而是关于物理学的形而上学立场，特别是物理主义，它要求物理学提供比它所做或应该提供的更多。一旦理解了物理学中时间方向的位置，臭名昭著的困难可以用一种新颖的方式来解决。消除了热力学第二定律中出现的问题，例如最小值问题，以及该定律产生古怪预测的担忧。一个附带好处是认识到过去的假设是多余的。论文的最后一个结论是，物理学和日常语言之间的关系远非困难之源，而是健康有益的。