Philosophical presentism

For other uses, see Presentism (historical analysis).

Presentism (sometimes 'philosophical presentism') is the view of time which states that only present entities exist (or, equivalently, that everything is present) and what is present (i.e., what exists) changes as time passes.[1] According to presentism, there are no past or future entities at all, though some entities have existed and other entities will exist. In a sense, the past and the future do not exist for presentists—past events have happened (have existed, or have been present) and future events will happen (will exist, or will be present), but neither exist at all since they do not exist now. Presentism is a view about temporal ontology, i.e., a view about what exists in time, that contrasts with eternalism—the view that past, present and future entities exist (that is, the ontological thesis of the 'block universe')—and with no-futurism—the view that only past and present entities exist (that is, the ontological thesis of the 'growing block universe').[2]

  1. ^ Ingram, David; Tallant, Jonathan (2022), "Presentism", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2022 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2022-02-06
  2. ^ Emery, Nina; Markosian, Ned; Sullivan, Meghan (2020), "Time", in Zalta, Edward N. (ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2020 ed.), Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University, retrieved 2022-02-06