Abstract

This chapter discusses the obstacles faced by presentists after denying the existence of past and future individuals. Presentism must still account for the manifest facts about the past and the future, but problems may arise when the presentist attempts to provide an account of the past. There is nothing in the presentist’s ontology on which to base truths about the past. Also, there is a problem regarding singular truths about past individuals; if past individuals do not exist, then they do not have properties or stand in relations. If they do not stand in relations, then there is no way to talk about them because reference is a relation. Even the thought of them cannot exist since singular propositions about them do not exist if they do not. This chapter shows the absurdity of these conclusions and endeavors to prove the existence of past individuals.