The Moving Spotlight: An Essay on Time and Ontology
Ross P. Cameron
Abstract
This book argues that the best version of the A-Theory is a version of the Moving Spotlight view. Past and future beings are real, but there is nonetheless an objectively privileged present. It is argued that the Moving Spotlight theory should be viewed as having more in common with Presentism—the view that reality is limited to the present—than with the B-Theory—the view that time is just another dimension like space through which things are spread out. The Moving Spotlight view, on this picture, agrees with Presentism that everything is the way it is now, it simply thinks that non-present be ... More
This book argues that the best version of the A-Theory is a version of the Moving Spotlight view. Past and future beings are real, but there is nonetheless an objectively privileged present. It is argued that the Moving Spotlight theory should be viewed as having more in common with Presentism—the view that reality is limited to the present—than with the B-Theory—the view that time is just another dimension like space through which things are spread out. The Moving Spotlight view, on this picture, agrees with Presentism that everything is the way it is now, it simply thinks that non-present beings are amongst the things that are now some way. It is argued that the Moving Spotlight theory provides the best account of truthmakers for claims about what was or will be the case, and the view is defended against a number of objections, including McTaggart’s argument that the A-Theory is inconsistent, and the charge that if the A-Theory is true but Presentism false then we could not know that we are present. An account of the open future is defended, and it is argued that this is a better account than that available to the Growing Block theory.
Keywords:
time,
Moving Spotlight,
Presentism,
A-Theory,
B-Theory,
open future,
truthmakers,
McTaggart,
Growing Block
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198713296 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198713296.001.0001 |
