Full Idea
The temporal reductionist claims that tensed locutions are indexical - 'present' being the time of utterance etc. This generalises to say that nothing corresponding to tense need be admitted as a fundamental feature of the world.
Gist of Idea
Talk using tenses can be eliminated, by reducing it to indexical connections for an utterance
Source
Theodore Sider (Four Dimensionalism [2001], 2.1)
Book Reference
Sider,Theodore: 'Four Dimensionalism' [OUP 2003], p.13
A Reaction
[He particular cites Mellor for this view] Highly implausible. I very much doubt whether it is possible to explain the indexicality of a word like 'now' without referring to tenses. Does time only exist when sentences and thoughts occur?