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Presentism and Eternalism in Perspective

Savitt, Steven (2004) Presentism and Eternalism in Perspective. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The distinction between presentism and eternalism is usually sought in some formula like ‘Only presently existing things exist’ or ‘Past, present, and future events are equally real’. I argue that ambiguities in the copula prevent these slogans from distinguishing significant opposed positions. I suggest in addition that one can find a series of significant distinctions if one takes spacetime structure into account. These presentisms and eternalisms are not contradictory. They are complementary elements of a complete naturalistic philosophy of time.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Savitt, Steven
Keywords: time, eternalism, presentism, block universe
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Depositing User: Steven Savitt
Date Deposited: 11 Jun 2004
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:12
Item ID: 1788
Subjects: Specific Sciences > Physics > Relativity Theory
Date: June 2004
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/1788

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