It is natural to think that, in the broad metaphysical sense of possibility, there could have been no moments of time. In this paper, I describe and assess an argument for the controversial conclusion that there must be at least one moment of time. First, I describe the argument, the premises of which are three plausible and widely accepted temporal theses (such as that what is sometimes the case is the case at some time). Next, I describe and assess three strategies for resisting the conclusion…
Read moreIt is natural to think that, in the broad metaphysical sense of possibility, there could have been no moments of time. In this paper, I describe and assess an argument for the controversial conclusion that there must be at least one moment of time. First, I describe the argument, the premises of which are three plausible and widely accepted temporal theses (such as that what is sometimes the case is the case at some time). Next, I describe and assess three strategies for resisting the conclusion. The first two involve rejecting at least one of the premises. The third involves accepting the conclusion on the interpretation of the predicate ‘time’ as expressing the property of being a maximal, sometimes-true proposition. My conclusion is that, on balance, the third strategy is best.
