Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Time and Change

  • Defining Presentism

    I concede to London Ed that it is not clear what exactly the thesis of presentism is.  There is no point in considering objections to it until we are sure what the thesis comes to.  The rough idea is of course easy to convey: only temporally present items exist.  This is more plausible under restriction to…

  • Time and Tense: Remarks on the B-Theory

    What is time?  Don't ask me, and I know.  Ask me, and I don't know. (St. Augustine)  This post sketches, without defending, one theory of time.  On the B-Theory of time, real or objective time is exhausted by what J. M. E. McTaggart called the B-series, the series of times, events, and individuals ordered by…

  • Which is the Hardest of the Philosophical Subdisciplines?

    Without a doubt, the philosophy of time.  The philosophy of mind is a piece of cake by comparison.  According to a story, possibly apocryphal, Peter van Inwagen was once asked why he didn't publish on time.  "Too hard," was his reply. If it is too hard for van Inwagen, it is hard.  According to Hugh McCann,…

  • Can a Thing Exist Without Existing Now?

    Clearly, a thing can exist without existing here.  The Washington Monument exists but not in my backyard.   Accordingly, 'x exists here' can be split up as follows: 1. x exists here iff (i) x exists & (ii) x is in the vicinity of the speaker. It seems pretty obvious that existence and the indexical property…

  • Caesar Is No More: The Aporetics of Reference to the Past

    Here is London Ed's most recent version of his argument in his own words except for one word I added in brackets: 1. There is no such thing as Caesar any more. 2. The predicate 'there is no such thing as — any more' is satisfied by Caesar. 3. If a relation obtains [between] x…

  • Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

    "Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. This warning, from the Catholic liturgy for Ash Wednesday, is based on Genesis 3, 19: In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem…

  • Substance and Accident: The Aporetics of Inherence

    1.If substance S exists and accident A exists, it does not follow that A inheres in S.  An accident cannot exist without existing in some substance or other, but if A exists it does not follow that A exists in S.  If redness is an accident, it cannot exist except in some substance; but if…

  • Constituent Ontology and the Problem of Change: Can Relational Ontology Do Better?

    Constituent ontologists would seem to have a serious problem accounting for accidental change.  Suppose an avocado goes from unripe to ripe over a two day period. That counts as an accidental change:  one and the same substance (the avocado) alters in respect of the accidental property of being unripe.  It has become different qualitatively while…

  • Presentism Between Scylla and Charybdis

    What better topic of meditation for New Year's Morn than the 'passage' of time. May the Reaper grant us all another year!  "I still live, I still think:  I still have to live, for I still have to think." (Nietzsche) ………….. If presentism is to be a defensible thesis, a 'presentable' one if you will, then…

  • Constituent Ontology and the Problem of Change

    In an earlier entry I sketched the difference between constituent ontology (C-ontology) and relational ontology (R-ontology) and outlined an argument against R-ontology.  I concluded that post with the claim that C-ontology also faces serious objections.  One of them could be called the 'argument from change.' The Argument from Change Suppose avocado A, which was unripe…

  • Death and Time

    Death is as certain as the passage of time — and as real.  But how real is that?

  • Differences Between Wishing and Hoping

    I wish, I wish, I wish in vainThat we could sit simply in that room againTen thousand dollars at the drop of a hatI'd give it all gladlyIf our lives could be like that. Bob Dylan's Dream Wishing and hoping are both intentional attitudes: they take an object.  One cannot just wish, or just hope,…

  • Seize the Day

    Horace advises that we seize the day. "Life ebbs as I speak: so seize each day, and grant the next no credit."  The trouble with this advice is that what we are told to grab is so deficient in entity as to be barely seizable.  The admonition comes almost to this: seize the unseizable, fix…

  • Time, Truth, and Truth-Making: An Antilogism Revisited and Transmogrified

    Earlier, I presented the following, which looks to be an antilogism.  An antilogism, by definition, is an inconsistent triad.  This post considers whether the triad really is logically inconsistent, and so really is an antilogism. 1. Temporally Unrestricted Excluded Middle: The principle that every declarative sentence is either true, or if not true, then false…

  • Excluded Middle and Future-Tensed Sentences: An Aporetic Triad

    Do you remember the prediction, made in 1999, that the DOW would reach 36,000 in a few years?  Since that didn't happen, I am inclined to say that Glassman and Hasset's prediction was wrong and was wrong at the time the prediction was made.  I take that to mean that the content of their prediction…