A Future for Presentism

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ISBN: 9780199212804 | 0199212805
Cover: Hardcover
Copyright: 2/8/2007

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Presentism, the view that only the present exists, was a much neglected position in the philosophy of time for a number of years. Recently, however, it has been enjoying a renaissance among philosophers. A Future for Presentism is meant as a timely contribution to this fast growing and exciting debate.

Preface and Acknowledgements	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
What is a theory of time?	p. 1
Initial plausible options for a theory of time	p. 3
What conditions must any adequate philosophical theory of time satisfy?	p. 14
The Presentist Manifesto	p. 19
When am I?	p. 21
The Present Problem	p. 21
Tensed theories toppled	p. 24
Tensed truth-conditions: token-reflexive or non-token-reflexive, that's not the question	p. 33
A theory of presentism	p. 39
The parameters of the problem	p. 39
A radical response	p. 40
Priorian presentism	p. 41
Reductive presentism	p. 47
Ersatzer presentism	p. 52
Branching time for presentists	p. 61
The advantages of ersatzer presentism	p. 65
Some outstanding problems for presentism met	p. 70
McTaggart's argument	p. 70
McTaggart's position	p. 71
McTaggart's argument	p. 73
How ersatzer presentism avoids McTaggart's argument	p. 76
A deontic, semantic, and paradoxical need for other times	p. 78
The deontic need	p. 78
The semantic need	p. 79
The paradoxical need	p. 80
Future contingents, non-contradiction, and the law of excluded middle muddle	p. 82
Transtemporal relations (I)	p. 95
Earlier than and defining tenses	p. 96
Determinables	p. 98
Qualitative relations	p. 98
Transtemporal relations (II): reference	p. 99
Prior, proper names, and presentism	p. 99
Rigidity for Russellians	p. 102
Who wants to be a Millianaire?	p. 103
Passing the nominal parcel	p. 104
Transtemporal relations (III): causation	p. 109
Formulating theories of causation within presentism	p. 110
The direction of time and causation: the counterfactual connotation of causation	p. 115
The direction of time and causation: the means-end connotation of causation	p. 121
Mellor's argument against causal loops	p. 131
Presentism and backwards causation	p. 134
Presentism and Relativity	p. 137
Physics for philosophers	p. 141
Basic notions	p. 141
Essentials of special relativity	p. 146
Minkowski space-time diagrams	p. 151
Minkowski's philosophical conclusions	p. 157
The present dialectic in special relativity	p. 160
Putnam's thesis	p. 160
Stein's antithesis	p. 162
Questioning the grounds for adopting Einstein's definition of simultaneity	p. 172
Understanding and defining absolute simultaneity	p. 173
The interpretation of the Lorentz transformations	p. 176
The 'conspiracy of silence' objection	p. 179
Simplicity and surplus content	p. 182
The Present Problem revisited	p. 184
Conclusion	p. 185
Becoming inflated	p. 187
The Mellor-Rees argument against tense theories	p. 187
Can expansion combat such wrinkles?	p. 191
Event and creation horizons	p. 197
Bursting the balloon	p. 198
All the time in the worlds: Godel's modal moral	p. 204
Godel's philosophical position on the nature of time	p. 205
Establishing part 1 of Godel's argument	p. 206
Part 2 of Godel's argument	p. 212
Using TNT as ammunition against Godel's conclusion	p. 213
Tenseless time: one way to dispose of TNT safely	p. 214
The essential properties of time	p. 216
Another way to dispose of TNT-although taking great care to do it safely	p. 217
Bibliography	p. 225
Index	p. 239
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A Future for Presentism

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