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Single Idea 18923

[from 'Truthmaking for Presentists' by Ross P. Cameron, in 3. Truth / B. Truthmakers / 9. Making Past Truths ]

Full Idea

The property 'being such as to have been a child' is suspicious because it points beyond its instances in the sense that a thing's presently having that property tells us nothing about the present intrinsic nature of the thing.

Gist of Idea

The present property 'having been F' says nothing about a thing's intrinsic nature

Source

Ross P. Cameron (Truthmaking for Presentists [2011], 2)

Book Reference

'Oxford Studies in Metaphysics Vol.6', ed/tr. Zimmerman,D/Bennett,K [OUP 2011], p.59


A Reaction

This is his objection to what he calls the 'Lucretian' strategy, which tries to make history into a property of present reality. That is implausible, I think, because there is no test for the property, apart from knowledge of the past. Reality is tensed?