Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dlnhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:12:52.886Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Theory of Presentism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Craig Bourne
Craig Bourne*
Affiliation:
St. Catharine's College Cambridge, UKCB2 1RL
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Most of us would want to say that it is true that Socrates taught Plato. According to realists about past facts, this is made true by the fact that there is, located in the past, i.e., earlier than now, at least one real event that is the teaching of Plato by Socrates. Presentists, however, in denying that past events and facts exist cannot appeal to such facts to make their past-tensed Statements true. So what is a presentist to do?

There are at least three conditions that would ideally be met in a satisfactory solution to this problem:

  • a) It must preserve our views about which Statements are true and which false

  • b) It must be transparent what the truthmakers are for those Statements

  • c) It must accommodate the truth-value links between various times.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , March 2006 , pp. 1 - 23
Copyright
Copyright ©The Authors 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References:

Adams, R.M. 1974. ‘Theories of Actuality/ Noûs 8 211-31. Reprinted in The Possible and the Actual, Loux, M.J. ed. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 190–209.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D.M. 1983. What is a Law of Nature? Cambridge: Cambridge University.Press.Google Scholar
Armstrong, D.M. 1997. A World of States of Affairs. Cambridge: Cambridge University.Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bacon, J. 1995. Universals and Property-Instances: The Alphabet of Being. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bigelow, J. 1996. ‘Presentism and Properties.’ In Philosophical Perspectives 10: Metaphysics, Tomberlin, J.E. ed. Cambridge, MA and Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 35–52.Google Scholar
Bourne, C.P. 2002. ‘When am I? A Tense Time for some Tense Theorists?’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80 359-71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourne, C.P. 2004. ‘Future Contingents, Non-Contradiction, and the Law of Excluded Middle Muddle.’ Analysis 64 122-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bourne, C.P. forthcoming. A Future for Presentism. Oxford: Oxford University.Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, W.L. 1997. ‘Is Presentness a Property?’ American Philosophical Quarterly 34 27–40.Google Scholar
Bourne, C.P. 2000a. The Tensed Theory of Time: A Critical Examination. Dordrecht: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Bourne, C.P. 2000b. The Tenselesss Theory of Time: A Critical Examination. Dordrecht: KluwerGoogle Scholar
Dummett, M. 1969. ‘The Reality of the Past.’ In his Truth and Other Enigmas. London: Duckworth. 1978. 358–374.Google Scholar
Dummett, M. 2003. Truth and the Past. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gale, R.M. 1968. The Language of Time. London: Routledge and.Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Kamp, H. 1971. ‘Formal Properties of “Now.“’ Theoria 37 179-87.Google Scholar
Kripke, S.A. 1963. ‘Semantical Considerations on Modal Logic.’ Ada Philosophica Fennica 16 83–94.Google Scholar
Le Poidevin, R. 1991. Orange, Cause and Contradiction. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Le Poidevin, R. ed. 1998. Questions of Time and Tense. Oxford: Oxford University.Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D.K. 1973. Counterfactuals. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lewis, D.K. 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lewis, D.K. 2001. ‘Forget about the “Correspondence Theory of Truth.'” Analysis 61 275-80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D.K. 2003. ‘Things qua Truthmakers.’ In Real Metaphysics: Essays in Honour of D.H. Mellor, Lillehammer, H. and Rodriguez-Pereyra, G. eds. London: Routledge, 25–38Google Scholar
tukasiewicz, J. 1970. Selected Works, Borkowski, L. ed. Amsterdam: North Holland.Google Scholar
McArthur, R.P. 1976. Tense Logic. Dordrecht: Reidel.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCall, S. 1994. A Model ofthe Universe. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Mellor, D.H. 1980. ‘Necessities and universals in natural laws.’ In Science, Belief and Behaviour, Mellor, D.H. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 105-25.Google Scholar
Mellor, D.H. 1998. Real Time II. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mellor, D.H. 2003. ‘Replies: Change and Time.’ In Real Metaphysics: Essays in honour of D.H. Mellor, Lillehammer, H. and Rodriguez-Pereyra, G. eds. London: Routledge, 235-7.Google Scholar
Oaklander, L.N. 1984. Temporal Relations and Temporal Becoming. Lanham: University Press.of America.Google Scholar
Oaklander, L.N. 2002. ‘Presentism, Ontology and Temporal Experience.’ In Time, Reality and Experience, Callender, C. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 73–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oaklander, L.N. 2003. ‘Presentism: A Critique.’ In Real Metaphysics: Essays in honour of D.H. Mellor, Lillehammer, H. and Rodriguez-Pereyra, G. eds. London: Routledge, 196–211.Google Scholar
Plantinga, A. 1974. The Nature of Necessity. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1957. Time and Modality. Oxford: Oxford University.Press.Google Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1967. Past, Present and Future. Oxford: Oxford University.Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1968a. Papers on Time and Tense. Oxford: Oxford University.Press.Google Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1968b. ‘Now.’ Noüs 2 (1968): 101-19.Google Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1970. ‘The Notion of the Present.’ Studium Generale 23 245-8.Google Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1971. Objects of Thought, Geach, P.T. and Kenny, A.J.P. eds. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, A.N. 1996. ‘A Statement of Temporal Realism.’ In Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior, Copeland, J. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Russell, B. 1921. The Analysis of Mind. London: Allen and.Unwin.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, G.N. 1980. Aspects of Time. Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Smith, P. 2003. ‘Deflationism: the Facts.’ In Real Metaphysics: Essays in honour of D.H. Mellor, Lillehammer, H. and Rodriguez-Pereyra, G. eds. London: Routledge, 43–53.Google Scholar
Smith, Q. 1987. ‘Problems with the New Tenseless Theory of Time.’ Philosophical Studies 52 371-92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, Q. 1993. Language and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Tooley, M. 1977. ‘The Nature of Laws.’ Canadian Journal of Philosophy 7 667-98.Google Scholar
Smith, Q. 1997. Time, Tense, and Causation. Oxford: Oxford University.Press.Google Scholar
Wheeler, J.A. 1978. ‘The “Past” and the “Delayed Choice” Double-Slit Experiment.’ In Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Theory, Marlow, A. ed. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar