Philosophical Arguments Against the A-Theory

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 99 (2):270-292 (2018)
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Abstract

According to the A-theory of time some instant of time is absolutely present. Many reject the A-theory on the grounds that it is inconsistent with current spacetime physics, which appears to leave no room for absolute presentness. However, some reject the A-theory on purely philosophical grounds. In this article I describe three purely philosophical arguments against the A-theory and show that there are plausible A-theoretic responses to each of them. I conclude that, whatever else is wrong with the A-theory, it is not obviously a philosophically suspect theory.

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2016

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10.1111/papq.12151

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Daniel Deasy
University College Dublin

Citations of this work

Making Sense of the Growing Block View.Natalja Deng - 2017 - Philosophia 45 (3):1113-1127.
The Triviality Argument Against Presentism.Daniel Deasy - 2019 - Synthese 196 (8):3369-3388.
LeMans’s gontological argument.Stephen Kearns - 2021 - Analysis 81 (3):447-452.

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On the Plurality of Worlds.David Lewis - 1986 - Revue Philosophique de la France Et de l'Etranger 178 (3):388-390.

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