In his famous paper The Unreality of Time (1908), J. M. Ellis McTaggart argued that our perception of time is an illusion, and that time itself is merely ideal. He introduced the notions of the A-series and B-series interpretations of time, representing two different ways that events in time can be ordered.
The A-series corresponds to our everyday notions of past, present, and future. An A-series ordering involves statements such as X occurred in the past, X is occurring now, or X will occur in the future. This is contrasted with the B-series, in which events are placed in a chronological order according to relations of the form X occurred before Y, X occurred at the same time as Y, or X occurred after Y.
McTaggart argued that the A-series was a necessary component of any full theory of time, but that it was also self-contradictory and that our perception of time was therefore an ultimately incoherent illusion.
McTaggart proposed that time could be described by three series, the A series, the B series and the C series.
McTaggart has defined two fixed series (the B and C series) and one series that is continuously created (the A series).
McTaggart considers the possibility that time is related to individual observers but he does not include any discussion of relativity and assumes that there is only one time, true for all observers: "The present through which events really pass, therefore, cannot be determined as simultaneous with the specious present.
McTaggart was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and remained there as a lecturer for most of his life.
Moore, and, according to Martin Gardner, the three were known as "The Mad Tea-Party of Trinity" (with McTaggart as the Dormouse).
McTaggart argued that the A-series was a necessary component of any full theory of time, but that it was also self-contradictory and that our perception of time was therefore an ultimately incoherent illusion.
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