{"id":3150,"date":"2020-05-07T16:36:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/07\/existence-is-tenseless\/"},"modified":"2020-05-07T16:36:04","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T16:36:04","slug":"existence-is-tenseless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/07\/existence-is-tenseless\/","title":{"rendered":"Existence is Tenseless"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ostrich inquires,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n

You hold that [instances of] both (1) and (2) below are true.
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

               (1) X is no longer temporally present and (2) X exists tenselessly.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

Fair enough. But what does \u2018exist tenselessly\u2019 mean?<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

To exist tenselessly is just to exist. To exist is to be something. More precisely, it is to be identical to something or other:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Q. Necessarily, for any x, x exists iff for some y, y = x.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

For example,<\/span><\/p>\n

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a. Quine exists iff Quine = Quine.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now is (a) true at all times, or only at some times? At all times. For at no time is Quine self-diverse.  This commits me to the affirmation of permanentism<\/em> and the denial of transientism<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

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P. It is always the case that everything in time exists at every time.<\/span><\/p>\n

T. Sometimes something begins to exist, and sometimes something ceases to exist.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now if nothing begins to exist and nothing ceases to exist, then the A-determinations (pastness, presentness, and futurity) are purely temporal and not at all existential. This is why, from<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

b. The Berlin Wall is no longer present<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

one cannot validly infer<\/span><\/p>\n

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c. The Berlin Wall does not exist.
<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Although nothing begins to exist and nothing ceases to exist, some items begin to be temporally present and some items cease to be temporally present.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now presentism includes transientism.  Having rejected transientism, I must also reject presentism, the view that it is always the case that whatever exists exists at present.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is it a substantive metaphysical question whether permanentism or presentism is true?  I should think that it is. It is a question about the nature of existence: Is existence time-independent or not?<\/span>    <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ostrich inquires, You hold that [instances of] both (1) and (2) below are true.                (1) X is no longer temporally present and (2) X exists tenselessly. Fair enough. But what does \u2018exist tenselessly\u2019 mean? To exist tenselessly is just to exist. To exist is to be something. More precisely, it is to be … Continue reading “Existence is Tenseless”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,204],"tags":[610,612,611],"class_list":["post-3150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-existence","category-time-and-change","tag-permanentism","tag-presentism","tag-transientism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}