more on this theme | more from this thinker
Full Idea
The main objections to the A-theory are due to the metaphysical mysteriousness of the A-theory ideas of past, present and future, and also tenses, and to the greater plausibility of analyzing them as indexicals.
Gist of Idea
The past, present, future and tenses of A-theory are too weird, and should be analysed indexically
Source
J.J.C. Smart (The Tenseless Theory of Time [2008], 3)
Book Ref
'Contemporary Debates in Metaphysics', ed/tr. Sider/Hawthorne/Zimmerman [Blackwell 2008], p.233
A Reaction
When it comes to time, every theory that has ever been though of is deeply weird, so the basic objection doesn't bother me. Analysing as indexicals just seems to be a technical way of denying reality to the present.
| 14611 | Metaphysics should avoid talk of past, present or future [Smart] |
| 14613 | Special relativity won't determine a preferred frame, but we can pick one externally [Smart] |
| 14614 | The past, present, future and tenses of A-theory are too weird, and should be analysed indexically [Smart] |
| 14615 | If time flows, then 'how fast does it flow?' is a tricky question [Smart] |