{"id":3152,"date":"2020-05-06T05:11:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T05:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/06\/the-temporal-the-atemporal-and-the-tenseless\/"},"modified":"2020-05-06T05:11:58","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T05:11:58","slug":"the-temporal-the-atemporal-and-the-tenseless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2020\/05\/06\/the-temporal-the-atemporal-and-the-tenseless\/","title":{"rendered":"The Temporal, the Atemporal, and the Tenseless"},"content":{"rendered":"

1) Divide all entities into two mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive classes, the temporal and the atemporal. Temporal entities are 'in time,' while atemporal entities are not 'in time.' Caesar's crossing the Rubicon<\/em> is in time; 7's being prime<\/em> is not in time. <\/span><\/p>\n

2) Here are some temporal words: past, present, future, before, after, later, earlier, simultaneous.  We can define 'in time' as follows.  An item is in time iff a temporal word can be meaningfully predicated of it. Otherwise it is not in time. My definition is circular, but innocuously so. It is like the following which is also circular: X is possible =df X exists in at least one possible world.<\/span><\/p>\n

"But doesn't 6 come after<\/em> 5?" Yes in the normal order of counting. Counting, however, is a temporal process. The numbers themselves are not in time. <\/span><\/p>\n

"If a thing changes, then it is in time. The number 9 changed from being Tom's favorite number to being Tom's second favorite number. So numbers are in time."  But that's a mere Cambridge change; it doesn't count. <\/span><\/p>\n

3) Atemporal entities tenselessly exist and tenselessly have properties.  Everything timeless is tenseless. <\/span><\/p>\n

4) But can a temporal item tenselessly exist? This is the question we need to discuss. Mr Brightly in an earlier thread says No. Caesar is a wholly past individual, and obviously to be classified as temporal rather an atemporal. On Brightly's presentism, JC existed, but is now nothing. We of course agree that JC is no longer temporally present. He is a wholly past individual.  But I maintain that there is a sense in which he exists nonetheless.  I gave an argument earlier in response to Brightly.  Here is a new one.<\/span><\/p>\n

ARGUMENT FROM THE UNIVOCITY OF 'EXIST(S)'<\/span><\/p>\n

a) Both temporal and atemporal items exist.<\/span><\/p>\n

b) Whatever exists exists in the same sense and in the same way: there are no different modes of existence such that timeless items exist in one way and time-bound items in another. 'Exist(s)' is univocal across all applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

c) Atemporal items exist tenselessly.  Therefore:<\/span><\/p>\n

d) Temporal items exist tenselessly. Therefore:<\/span><\/p>\n

e) Julius Caesar and all wholly past items exist tenselessly despite being wholly past.<\/span><\/p>\n

COMMENT<\/span><\/p>\n

The main idea is that existence, by its very nature, is tenseless.  To exist is to exist tenselessly.  If so, then pastness, presentness, and futurity are purely temporal properties which, by themselves, imply nothing about existence. It follows that existence cannot be identified with temporal presentness.  Accordingly:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Dinosaurs existed but do not still exist just in case dinosaurs exist (tenselessly) AND they are wholly past.<\/span><\/p>\n

Horses exist (present-tense) just in case horses exist (tenselessly) AND some of them are present.<\/span><\/p>\n

Martian colonies will exist just in case Martian colonies exist (tenselessly) AND they are wholly future.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The idea is that existence is time-independent. When<\/em> a thing exists has no bearing on whether<\/em> it exists. <\/span><\/p>\n

Think of a spotlight that successively illuminates events in McTaggart's B-series (events ordered by the B-relations, i.e., earlier than, later than, simultaneous with.)  The events and the times at which they occur are all equally real, equally existent, and their existence is tenseless.  An illuminated event is a temporally present event.  So the spotlight once shone on the event of my birth rendering it present. But the spotlight moved on such that my birth became wholly past, but not nonexistent.<\/span><\/p>\n

UPSHOT<\/span><\/p>\n

I am not endorsing the above argument, nor am I endorsing the Spotlight Theory of Time.  My point against Brightly is that there is no contradiction in thinking of a temporal item as tenselessly existing.  The trick is to realize that existence needn't be thought of as time-dependent — even in the case of items in time.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1) Divide all entities into two mutually exclusive and jointly exhaustive classes, the temporal and the atemporal. Temporal entities are 'in time,' while atemporal entities are not 'in time.' Caesar's crossing the Rubicon is in time; 7's being prime is not in time.  2) Here are some temporal words: past, present, future, before, after, later, … Continue reading “The Temporal, the Atemporal, and the 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":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3152","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=3152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}