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253Prior and the PlatonistAnalysis 62 (3): 211-216. 2002.The aim of this paper is to draw attention to a conflict between two popular views about time: Arthur Prior’s proposal for treating tense on the model of modal logic, and the ‘Platonic’ thesis that some objects (God, forms, universals, or numbers) exist eternally.1 I will argue that anyone who accepts the former ought to reject the latter.
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87Review of Joseph Keim Campbell, Michael O'Rourke, Harry Silverstein (eds.), Time and Identity (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2011 (1). 2011.
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211Dummett on the Time-ContinuumPhilosophy 80 (311). 2005.Michael Dummett claims that the classical model of time as a continuum of instants has to be rejected. In his view, “it allows as possibilities what reason rules out, and leaves it to the contingent laws of physics to rule out what a good model of physical reality would not even be able to describe.” This paper argues otherwise
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159Times in Tense LogicNotre Dame Journal of Formal Logic 50 (2): 201--19. 2009.This paper explains how to obtain quantification over times in a tense logic in which all temporal distinctions are ultimately spelled out in terms of the two simple tense operators “it was the case that” and “it will be the case that.” The account of times defended here is similar to what is known as “linguistic ersatzism” about possible worlds, but there are noteworthy differences between these two cases. For example, while linguistic ersatzism would support actualism, the view of times defend…Read more
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127Modal Property ComprehensionSynthese 190 (4): 693-707. 2013.To define new property terms, we combine already familiar ones by means of certain logical operations. Given suitable constraints, these operations may presumably include the resources of first-order logic: truth-functional sentence connectives and quantification over objects. What is far less clear is whether we can also use modal operators for this purpose. This paper clarifies what is involved in this question, and argues in favor of modal property definitions.
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167Tense LogicPhilosophy Compass 10 (6): 406-419. 2015.This article surveys some of the key issues that arise when one tries to use tense logic as a metaphysical theory of the nature of time. Topics discussed include basic tense logic, tense logic and verb tense, the structure of the time series, instants of time, quantified tense logic, and the expressive resources of tense logic
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427Explaining causal loopsAnalysis 72 (2): 259-264. 2012.This article argues that the causal loops that occur in some time-travel scenarios and in certain solutions of the theory of relativity are no more mysterious than the infinitely descending causal chains familiar from Newtonian mechanics
