more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 4473

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 1. Nature of Time / h. Presentism ]

Full Idea

'Presentism' is the view that only the present moment exists.

Gist of Idea

'Presentism' is the view that only the present moment exists

Source

J.P. Moreland (Universals [2001], Ch.6)

Book Ref

Moreland,J.P.: 'Universals' [Acumen 2001], p.133


A Reaction

And Greek scepticism doubted even the present, since there is no space between past and future. It is a delightfully vertigo-inducing idea.


The 30 ideas with the same theme [only the present moment exists]:

The past and the future subsist, but only the present exists [Chrysippus, by Plutarch]
If the past is no longer, and the future is not yet, how can they exist? [Augustine]
If Presentism is correct, we cannot even say that the present changes [Dummett]
If things don't persist through time, then change makes no sense [Le Poidevin]
I am a presentist, and all language and common sense supports my view [Bigelow]
Presentists must deny truths about multiple times [Sider]
For Presentists there must always be a temporal vantage point for any description [Sider]
'Presentism' is the view that only the present moment exists [Moreland]
Presentists can talk of 'times', with no more commitment than modalists have to possible worlds [Crisp,TM]
Presentists say that things have existed and will exist, not that they are instantaneous [Merricks]
Presentist should deny there is a present time, and just say that things 'exist' [Merricks]
Maybe only presentism allows change, by now having a property, and then lacking it [Merricks]
How can presentists talk of 'earlier than', and distinguish past from future? [Bourne]
Presentism seems to deny causation, because the cause and the effect can never coexist [Bourne]
Since presentists treat the presentness of events as basic, simultaneity should be define by that means [Bourne]
A fixed foliation theory of quantum gravity could make presentism possible [Ladyman/Ross]
Presentism is the view that only present objects exist [Markosian]
Presentism says if objects don't exist now, we can't have attitudes to them or relations with them [Markosian]
Presentism seems to entail that we cannot talk about other times [Markosian]
Serious Presentism says things must exist to have relations and properties; Unrestricted version denies this [Markosian]
Maybe Presentists can refer to the haecceity of a thing, after the thing itself disappears [Markosian]
Maybe Presentists can paraphrase singular propositions about the past [Markosian]
Special Relativity denies the absolute present which Presentism needs [Markosian]
Presentists lack the materials for a realist view of change [Price,H]
Presentists explain cross-temporal relations using surrogate descriptions [Vetter]
Erzatz Presentism allows the existence of other times, with only the present 'actualised' [Baron/Miller]
How do presentists explain relations between things existing at different times? [Baron/Miller]
Presentism needs endurantism, because other theories imply most of the object doesn't exist [Baron/Miller]
How can presentists move to the next future moment, if that doesn't exist? [Baron/Miller]
It is difficult to handle presentism in first-order logic [Ingthorsson]