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Absolute Simultaneity and the Infinity of the PastIn Robin Le Poidevin (ed.), Questions of time and tense, Oxford University Press. pp. 135--83. 1998.
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35Absolute simultaneity and the infinity of timeIn Robin Le Poidevin (ed.), Questions of time and tense, Oxford University Press. pp. 135--83. 1998.
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224The Metaphysical Necessity of Natural LawsProceedings of the Heraclitean Society 18 104-23. 1996.I begin by defending condition (i) against five objections (section 2). Following this, I show that the theory that laws obtain contingently encounters three problems that are solved by the theory that laws are metaphysically necessary (section 3). In section 3, I criticize the regularity theory of natural laws and the universals theory of Armstrong, Dretske and Tooley, and also show how the metaphysical theory solves the “inference problem” that Van Fraassen (1989) posed for any theory of natur…Read more
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6The Phenomenology of A-timeDiálogos. Revista de Filosofía de la Universidad de Puerto Rico 23 (52): 143-153. 1988.One of the central debates in current analytic philosophy of time is whether time consists only of relations of simultaneity, earlier and later (B-relations), or whether it also consists of properties of futurity, presentness and pastness (A-properties). If time consists only of B-relations, then all temporal determinations are permanent; if at anyone time it is the case that birth is later than Homer's birth, then it is ever after the case that Dante's birth is later than Homer's. The temporal …Read more
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Temporal IndexicalsIn L. Nathan Oaklander & Quentin Smith (eds.), The New Theory of Time, Yale Up. pp. 136-156. 1994.
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Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang CosmologyAmerican Journal of Theology and Philosophy 17 (1): 112-117. 1996.
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Theism, Atheism, and Big Bang CosmologyBritish Journal for the Philosophy of Science 47 (1): 133-136. 1996.
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53The Felt Meanings of the World: A Metaphysics of FeelingPurdue University Press. 1986.In a critical dialogue with the metaphysical tradition from Plato to Hegel to contemporary schools of thought, the author convincingly argues that traditional rationalist metaphysics has failed to accomplish its goal of demonstrating the existence of a di.
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171The New Theory of Time (edited book)Yale Up. 1994.The Preface and the General Introduction to the book set the debate within the wider philosophical context and show why the subject of temporal becoming is a perennial concern of science, religion, language, logic, and the philosophy of ...
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14Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom (review)Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53 (2): 493-495. 1993.
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48Time, Tense and CausationPhilosophical Review 108 (1): 123. 1999.The main goal of Michael Tooley’s groundbreaking book is to establish a position intermediate between the tenseless theory of time and the standard tensed theory of time. Tooley argues for a novel version of the tensed theory of time, namely, that the future is unreal and the present and past real, and yet that reality consists only of tenseless facts. The question that naturally arises for the reader concerns an apparent paradox: how could the tensed theory of time be true if reality consists o…Read more
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58Husserl's theory of the phenomenological reduction in the logical investigationsPhilosophy and Phenomenological Research 39 (3): 433-437. 1979.Husserl conceived of the "reduction" in the "logical investigations" in a different manner than he conceived of it in his later works. In this book, The "reduction" is not a bracketing of the empirical ego so as to attain a self-Enclosed transcendental ego with its intentional acts, Hyletic data, And noemata. Rather it is a reduction that proceeds in part through an adequate inner perception, And in part through recollection and "empirical assumption," and which results in an empirical ego that …Read more
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7Husserl's Early Conception of the Triadic Structure of the Intentional ActPhilosophy Today 25 (1): 81-91. 1981.
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121A Phenomenological Examination of Husserls Theory of Hyletic DataPhilosophy Today 21 (4): 356-367. 1977.I endeavor to explain husserl's theory of hyletic data, And to show that there is no phenomenological evidence for the existence of such data. I explain husserl's theory that hyletic data include the perceptual sensations that are immanent to consciousness, And that correspond to the objective sense properties that belong to the perceived object. The hyletic sensations do not appear, But are endowed with a meaning by the perceptual consciousness, And by means of this meaning-Endowment, The perce…Read more
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890Why Stephen Hawking’s Cosmology Precludes a CreatorPhilo 1 (1): 75-93. 1998.Atheists have tacitly conceded the field to theists in the area of philosophical cosmology, specifically, in the enterprise of explaining why the universe exists. The theistic hypothesis is that the reason the universe exists lies in God’s creative choice, but atheists have not proposed any reason why the universe exists. I argue that quantum cosmology proposes such an atheistic reason, namely, that the universe exists because it has an unconditional probability of existing based on a functional…Read more
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62Tensed States of Affairs and Possible WorldsGrazer Philosophische Studien 31 (1): 225-235. 1988.The aim of this paper is to show that the definition of a possible world in the actualist tradition of A. Plantinga, R.M. Adams, R. Chisholm, J. Pollock and N. Wolterstorff is unable to accomodate tensed states of affairs. An example of a tensed state of affairs is the transiently obtaining state of affairs that the storm is present, which obtains only if its negation, it is not the case that the storm is present also obtains but at different times. A possible world that includes tensed states o…Read more
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87The reason the universe exists is that it caused itself to existPhilosophy 74 (4): 579-586. 1999.Philosophers have traditionally responded to the question, ‘why does the universe exist?’, in one of two ways. One response is that ‘the universe exists because God created it’ and the other response is that ‘the universe exists for no reason—its existence is a brute fact’. Both these responses are inadequate, since a third response is possible, namely, that the reason the universe exists is that it caused itself to exist. There are at least three ways the universe can cause itself to exist, by …Read more
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95The new theory of reference entails absolute time and spacePhilosophy of Science 58 (3): 411-416. 1991.The New Theory of Reference (NTR) of Marcus, Kripke, Kaplan, Putnam and others is a theory in the philosophy of language and there has been much debate about whether it entails the metaphysical theory of essentialism. But there has been no discussion about whether the NTR entails another metaphysical theory, the absolutist theory of time and space. It is argued in this paper that the NTR carries this entailment; the theory of time is the main focus of the paper and it is argued that the NTR enta…Read more
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228The multiple uses of indexicalsSynthese 78 (2): 167--191. 1989.you use it. These two assumptions, which I believe to be false, are based on a more fundamental assumption, that the rule governing the reference of an indexical remains constant from use to use. Contemporary theories hold that the reference of an indexical varies from use to (relevantly different) use, but that the reference-fixing rule of use is You can search..
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144The Logical Structure of the Debate About McTaggart’s ParadoxPhilosophy Research Archives 14 371-379. 1988.This short article aims to illustrate the mutually question-begging arguments that are often presented in debates between opponents and defenderss of McTaggart’s “proof” that A-properties (pastness, presentness and futurity) are logically incoherent. A sample of such arguments is taken from a recent debate between L. Nathan Oaklander (a defender of McTaggart) and myself (an opponent of McTaggart) and a method of escaping the impasse that is often reached in such debates is suggested.
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108The infinite regress of temporal attributionsSouthern Journal of Philosophy 24 (3): 383-396. 1986.Some philosophers follow mctaggart in holding that there is a vicious infinite regress of tensed predications. Other philosophers claim there is no regress. The author argues that there is a regress, But it is benign
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56The Impossibility of Token-Reflexive AnalysesDialogue 25 (4): 757. 1986.Reichenbach, for example, believes that "1" has the same extensional meaning as "the person who utters this token", and Smart believes that "now" means the same as is simultaneous with this utterance” (where the italicization of the "is" indicates it is tenseless). But if a tokeri 1 of’ ’I’ , refers to itself, it has a different reference than a token.
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