Philosophy of Time Seminar

Weeks 9-10: Presentism

Dear all, this Friday I would like to conclude the issue of Time and Modality. As you probably already know, we shall have a double session this week (as Marco is not going to be around). In the second part of the class we'll talk about various forms of Presentism. I shall discuss an argument by Williamson to the effect that all contingent being exist necessarily (see further readings). I shall use this argument as a conceptual scaffolding for our discussion of presentism, so it is not strictly required that you read the paper (although I highly recommend it).

Essential Readings

Markosian - A defence of Presentism

Mozersky - Presentism (ch. 5)

Further Readings

Prior - Time and Modality

Sider - Quantifiers and Temporal Ontology

Williamson - Necessary Existents

Zimmerman - Temporary Intrinsics and Presentism

Week 8: Time and Modality

Dear all, this coming week we'll discuss the relationship between time and modality. There are two essential readings. One is a classic by Prior, Changes in Things and Changes in Events. The other is a paper by Ulrich Meyer on the relationship between the logics of time and modality. For a super-concise introduction to tense logic, see paragraph 7.3 of Sider's Logic for Philosophy (for an intro to modal logic see ch. 6 of the same book).

Essential Readings

Prior - Changes in Things and Changes in Events (ch. 1)

Meyer - Tense and Modality (ch. 4)

Sider - Propositional Tense Logic (parag. 7.3)

Further Readings

Crisp - Presentism and the Grounding Objection

Prior - Past, Present and Future (ch. 1)

Week 7: The New Tenseless Theory of Time

Dear all, in the next seminar (Friday the 24th of April) we'll discuss the so called "New Tenseless Theory of Time". It is largely the result of a concession, on the part of more recent generations of B-theorists, that tensed statements cannot be translated into tenseless ones without loss of meaning. I shall briefly discuss again the standard ("Old") tenseless theory. The essential readings for this week are a seminal paper by Oaklander (one of the fathers of the theory) and a critical assessment of the New Theory by William Craig (chapter 3 of his book The Tensed Theory of Time).

Essential Readings