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Full Idea
Presentism has a problem with singular propositions about non-present objects. ...When Socrates popped out of existence, according to Presentism, all those singular propositions about him also popped out of existence.
Gist of Idea
Presentism has the problem that if Socrates ceases to exist, so do propositions about him
Source
Ned Markosian (A Defense of Presentism [2004], 2.1)
Book Ref
'Persistence: contemporary readings', ed/tr. Haslanger,S/|Kurtz,RM [MIT 2006], p.308
A Reaction
He seems to treat propositions in a Russellian way, as things which exist independently of thinkers, which I struggle to grasp. Markosian offers various strategies for this [§3.5].
Related Ideas
Idea 13996 Maybe Presentists can refer to the haecceity of a thing, after the thing itself disappears [Markosian]
Idea 8361 What is true used to be possible, but it may no longer be so [Wright,GHv]
| 13990 | Presentism is the view that only present objects exist [Markosian] |
| 13991 | Presentism has the problem that if Socrates ceases to exist, so do propositions about him [Markosian] |
| 13992 | Presentism says if objects don't exist now, we can't have attitudes to them or relations with them [Markosian] |
| 13994 | Presentism seems to entail that we cannot talk about other times [Markosian] |
| 13995 | Serious Presentism says things must exist to have relations and properties; Unrestricted version denies this [Markosian] |
| 14002 | Possible worlds must be abstract, because two qualitatively identical worlds are just one world [Markosian] |
| 13996 | Maybe Presentists can refer to the haecceity of a thing, after the thing itself disappears [Markosian] |
| 13997 | Maybe Presentists can paraphrase singular propositions about the past [Markosian] |
| 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] |
| 14000 | 'Grabby' truth conditions first select their object, unlike 'searchy' truth conditions [Markosian] |
| 13993 | Special Relativity denies the absolute present which Presentism needs [Markosian] |
| 14001 | People who use science to make philosophical points don't realise how philosophical science is [Markosian] |