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The Metaphysics of Space-Time: A Manifold for Presentists| old_uid | 9346 |
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| title | The Metaphysics of Space-Time: A Manifold for Presentists |
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| start_date | 2010/12/03 |
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| schedule | 11h-13h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | Philosophers who worry about the nature of time can be divided into A-theorists and B-theorists. The former regard the distinctions between what is present, past, and future as objective facts; the latter take these distinctions to be relative to times or conversations or some other temporal thing. The most popular form of the A-theory is presentism, according to which the special nature of the present is explained in terms of existence. There is, however, considerable pressure on presentists to accept the existence of certain things that, intuitively, are “in the past”. Determinate facts about the state of the universe at each instant may fail to provide an adequate basis for certain cross-temporal facts that are physically important and objective. Theodore Sider has challenged the presentist to find a basis in reality for these physical facts; and I offer a couple of ways in which a presentist could meet the challenge. |
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| responsibles | Spector, Lesguillons, Tiziana + |
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