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Wiley InterScience | |||||||||||||||
  DialecticaVolume 59 Issue 4, Pages 401 - 457 Published Online: 11 Nov 2005 Journal compilation © 2009 Editorial Board of dialectica
Abstract | References | Full Text: HTML, PDF (Size: 228K) | Related Articles | Citation Tracking  The A-Theory of Time, The B-Theory of Time, and 'Taking Tense Seriously' Copyright 2005 Editorial Board of dialectica Abstract
The paper has two parts: First, I describe a relatively popular thesis in the philosophy of propositional attitudes, worthy of the name 'taking tense seriously'; and I distinguish it from a family of views in the metaphysics of time, namely, the A-theories (or what are sometimes called 'tensed theories of time'). Once the distinction is in focus, a skeptical worry arises. Some A-theorists maintain that the difference between past, present, and future, is to be drawn in terms of what exists: growing-block theorists eschew ontological commitment to future entities; presentists, to future and past entities. Others think of themselves as A-theorists but exclude no past or future things from their ontology. The metaphysical skeptic suspects that their attempt to articulate an 'eternalist' version of the A-theory collapses into merely 'taking tense seriously'– a thesis that does not imply the A-theory. The second half of the paper is the search for a stable eternalist A-theory. It includes discussion of temporary intrinsics, temporal parts, and truth. | 
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