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Full Idea
When people speak of the times of their predecessors, they do not think after their predecessors are gone that their times can be any where else than in the memory of those that remember.
Gist of Idea
Past times can't exist anywhere, apart from in our memories
Source
Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore (Elements, First Section) [1655], 2.07.03)
Book Ref
Hobbes,Thomas: 'Metaphysical Writings', ed/tr. Calkins,Mary Whiton [Open Court 1905], p.46
| 17243 | Past times can't exist anywhere, apart from in our memories [Hobbes] |
| 8196 | The present cannot exist alone as a mere boundary; past and future truths are rendered meaningless [Dummett] |
| 22937 | If the present could have diverse pasts, then past truths can't have present truthmakers [Le Poidevin] |
| 14405 | How can a presentist explain an object's having existed? [Merricks] |
| 13998 | Objects in the past, like Socrates, are more like imaginary objects than like remote spatial objects [Markosian] |
| 13999 | People are mistaken when they think 'Socrates was a philosopher' says something [Markosian] |
| 22987 | The past (unlike the future) is fixed, along with truths about it, by the existence of past objects [Baron/Miller] |