Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:57:14.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An A-theory without tense operators

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Meghan Sullivan
Meghan Sullivan*
Affiliation:
Philosophy Department, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, USA.
*
Email: sullivan.meghan@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A-theorists think there is a fundamental difference between the present and other times. This concern shows up in what kinds of properties they take to be instantiated, what objects they think exist and how they formalize their views. Nearly every contemporary A-theorist assumes that her metaphysics requires a tense logic – a logic with operators like (‘it was the case that...’) and (‘it will be the case that...’). In this paper, I show that there is at least one viable A-theory that does not require a logic with tense operators. And I will argue that three common indispensability arguments for tense operators are unsound.

Keywords

A-theorypredicate modifierseternalismpermanentismtense logic
Type
Articles
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 46 , Issue 4-5: Special Issue: Williamson on Modality , August 2016 , pp. 735 - 758
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Philosophy 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adams, R. M. 1989. “Time and Thisness.” In Themes from Kaplan, edited by Joseph Almog, H. W., and Perry, John, 23-42. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Broad, C. 1923. Scientific Thought. London: Routledge and Keegan Paul Ltd.Google Scholar
Burgess, J. 2009. Philosophical Logic. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cappelen, H., and Lepore, E.. 2005. Insensitive Semantics: A Defense of Semantic Minimalism and Speech Act Pluralism. Oxford: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chisholm, R. 1978. “Objects and Persons: Revisions and Replies.” Grazer Philosophishe Studien 7(8): 317–361.Google Scholar
Clark, R. 1970. “Concerning the Logic of Predicate Modifiers.” Nous 4(4): 331–335.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, R. 1974. “Adverbial Modifiers.” In Ontological Commitment, edited by Severens, R. H., 22–35. Athens: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Clark, R. 1975. “Facts, Fact-correlates, and Fact-surrogates.” In Fact, Value, and Perception: Essays in Honor of Charles A. Baylis, edited by Welsh, P., 3–18. Durham NC: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Crisp, T. 2003. “Presentism.” In The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics, edited by Loux, M. J. and Zimmerman, D. W., 211–246. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Crisp, T. 2007. “Presentism and the Grounding Objection.” Nous 41(7): 90–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davidson, D. 1980. "The Logical Form of Action Sentences”. In Essays on Actions and Events, 105–121. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, M. 2003. “Presentism and the Non-present.” Philosophical Studies 113: 77–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Enc, M. 1986. "Referential Analysis of Temporal Expressions." Linguistics and Philosophy 9(4): : 405–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Forrest, P. 2006. “General Facts, Physical Necessity, and the Metaphysics of Time.” Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 2: 137–154.Google Scholar
Gamut, L. 1991. Language, Logic and Meaning: Volume II Intensional Logic and Logical Grammar, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gibson, I., and Pooley, O.. 2006. “Relativistic Persistence.” Philosophical Perspectives 20: 157–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haslanger, S. 1989. "Endurance and Temporary Intrinsics." Analysis 49(3): 119–125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haslanger, S. 2003. “Persistence through Time.” In The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics, edited by Loux, M. J. and Zimmerman, D. W., 315–354. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hirsch, E. 2009. “Ontology and Alternative Languages.” In Metametaphysics: New Essays on the Foundations of Ontology, edited by Chalmers, D. J., Manley, D. and Wasserman, R., 231–259. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
van Inwagen, P. 1990. “Four-dimensional Objects.” Nous 24(2): 245–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Inwagen, P. 1998. Meta-ontology. Erkenntnis 48: 233–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kamp, H. 1968. “ Tense Logic and the Theory of Linear Orders”. Ph. D. thesis, UCLA.Google Scholar
King, J. C. 2007. The Nature and Structure of Content. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1983. “Attitudes De Dicto and De Se.” In Philosophical Papers, Vol 1, 133–155. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 2002. “Tensing the Copula.” Mind 111: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 2004. “Tensed Quantifiers.” In Oxford Studies in Metaphysics, edited by Zimmerman, D. W., 3–14. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Markosian, N. 2004. “A Defense of Presentism.” Oxford Studies in Metaphysics 1: 83–106.Google Scholar
Mellor, D. 1998. Real Time II. London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merricks, T. 2007. Truth and Ontology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meyer, U. 2012. “Times as Abstractions.” In The Future of Philosophy of Time, edited by Bardon, A.. Oxford: Routledge. pp. 41-45Google Scholar
Parsons, T. 1970. “Some Problems Concerning the Logic of Grammatical Modifiers.” Synthese 3(4): 320–334.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsons, T. 1990. Events in the Semantics of English. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Partee, B. 1973. “Some Structural Analogies between Tenses and Pronouns in English.” Journal of Philosophy 70: 601–607.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peacocke, C. 1976. “An Appendix to David Wiggins’ ‘Note’.” In Truth and Meaning: Essays in Semantics, edited by Evans, G. and McDowell, J., 313–324. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Price, H. 1996. Time's Arrow and Archimedes’ Point: New Directions for the Physics of Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Prior, A. 1967. Past, Present, and Future. Oxford: Clarendon Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, A. 1971. Objects of Thought. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prior, A. 1996. “Some free Thinking about Time.” In Logic and Reality: Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior, edited by Copeland, B., 47–51. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Prior, A. 1998. “The Notion of the Present.” In Metaphysics: The Big Questions, edited by van Inwagen, P. and Zimmerman, D. W., 80–82. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Prior, A., and Fine, K.. 1977. Worlds, Times and Selves. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Quine, W. 1950. “Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis.” The Journal of Philosophy 47(22): 621–633.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quine, W. 1960. “Variables Explained Away.” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 104(3): 343–347.Google Scholar
Reichenbach, H. 1947. Elements of Symbolic Logic. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Russell, B. 1915. "On the Experience of Time." The Monist 25: 212–233.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, T. 2001. Four-Dimensionalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, T. 2011. Writing the Book of the World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, M. 2012a. “The Minimal A-theory.” Philosophical Studies 158: 149–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, M. 2012b. “Problems for Temporary Existence in Tense Logic.” Philosophy Compass 7: 43–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, M. 2014. “Change We Can Believe In (and Assert).” Nous 48(3): 474–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szabo, Z. G. 2007. “Counting across Times.” Philosophical Perspectives 20: 399–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, J. J. 1983. “Parthood and Identity across Time.” The Journal of Philosophy 80(4): 201–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tooley, M. 1997. Time, Tense and Causation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Wiggins, D. 1976. “The De Re ‘Must’: A Note on the Logical Form of Essentialist Claims.” In Truth and Meaning: Essays in Semantics, edited by Evans, G. and McDowell, J., 285–312. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, T. 2002. "Necessary Existents”. In Logic, Thought, and Language, edited by O’Hear, A., 233–251. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, T. 2013. Modal Logic as Metaphysics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, D. W. 1998. “Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism.” In Metaphysics: The Big Questions, edited by van Inwagen, P. and Zimmerman, D. W., 206–218. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, D. W. 2005. “The A-theory of Time, the B-theory of Time, and Taking Tense Seriously.” Dialectica 59: 401–457.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, D. W. 2011. “Presentism and the Space-time Manifold.” In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time, edited by Callendar, C., 163–245. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar