•  121
    Antirealism, presentism and bivalence
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 18 (1). 2010.
    This Article does not have an abstract
  •  118
    Semantic externalism and presentism
    International Journal of Philosophical Studies 16 (4). 2008.
    In this paper I discuss an unconventional form of presentism which, I claim, captures better than all other versions of the doctrine the fundamental notion underpinning it, namely, the notion that 'only what is present is real'. My proposal is to take this maxim as stating, not the rather uncontroversial view that past things are not real now, but the more radical idea that they never were. This rendition of presentism is, I argue, the only one that is neither trivial nor absurd. I examine this …Read more
  •  84
    Physics’ silence on time
    European Journal for Philosophy of Science 8 (3): 455-469. 2018.
    In this paper I argue that physics is, always was, and probably always will be voiceless with respect to tense and passage, and that, therefore, if, as I believe, tense and passage are the essence of time, physics’ contribution to our understanding of time can only be limited. The argument, in a nutshell, is that if "physics has no possibility of expression for the Now", to quote Einstein, then it cannot add anything to the study of tense and passage, and specifically, cannot add anything to the…Read more
  •  68
    Dolev's ambitious project is to show that the traditional debate in the philosophy of time between the so-called ‘tensed’ and ‘tenseless’ theorists is not a sustainable one. The key to the negative portion argument is that both the tensed and tenseless view of time can be understood only from within their respective ontological frameworks. Moreover, that there is only really an appearance of understanding within these frameworks, since neither framework furnishes us with the wherewithal to genui…Read more
  •  66
    Is ontology the key to understanding tense?
    Synthese 195 (4): 1741-1749. 2018.
    In this paper I claim that as bitter as the eternalist/presentist rivalry is, as far as both camps are concerned, a third position—which I defend—is more disturbing. The reason is that what eternalists and presentists agree on is more fundamental than what they disagree about. They agree that time carves, to use Orilia’s term, “ontological inventories.” This in a way answers the “fundamental question”—what is time? They disagree about the contents of the inventories, but that, I suggest, is a se…Read more
  •  63
    Dummett's antirealism and time
    European Journal of Philosophy 8 (3). 2000.
  •  62
    The Tenseless Theory of Time: Insights and Limitations
    Review of Metaphysics 54 (2). 2000.
    THE TENSELESS THEORY OF TIME has enjoyed a great revival in the twentieth century. Prominent philosophers such as Russell, Ayer, Goodman, Quine, and Smart and, more recently, Mellor and Parfit, have turned their philosophical efforts and talents to its defense. It is proper to refer to their work as a “revival,” for under different names, the view has been at the center of the philosophical preoccupation with time for centuries. A version of the view can be found in Augustine’s Confessions, whic…Read more
  •  56
    Mission impossible and Wittgenstein's standard metre
    Philosophical Investigations 30 (2). 2007.
    In this paper, I argue that context sensitivity is crucial for a proper exegesis of Wittgenstein's remark that one can say of the standard metre rod neither that it is one metre long nor that it is not one metre long. I discuss cases in which we can meaningfully assert that the rod in question is one metre long and explain why these cases do not conflict with Wittgenstein's insight. I analyse Pollock's recent defence of Wittgenstein's remark, as well as Kripke's objections to it, and show that, …Read more
  •  47
    Why induction is no cure for baldness
    Philosophical Investigations 27 (4). 2004.
    The paper aims at establishing that the premises of both the inductive and the multi‐premised versions of the sorites argument are not apparently acceptable and that, therefore, sorites‐type arguments do not constitute logical or conceptual paradoxes. Rather, it is suggested that such arguments are most properly and fruitfully described as skeptical challenges. A secondary goal of the paper is to focus attention to the unduly neglected inductive version of the argument.
  •  34
    The Present's Uniqueness
    Philosophical Investigations 45 (1): 3-20. 2021.
    Philosophical Investigations, Volume 45, Issue 1, Page 3-20, January 2022.
  •  32
    Reading PutnamBy Maria Baghramian
    Analysis 74 (2): 351-353. 2014.
  •  31
    On the essence of temporal directionality and its irreversibility
    Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 18 (3): 589-601. 2019.
    My analysis of temporal direction begins by establishing that time-reversal scenarios, scenarios in which the direction of time itself is reversed, whether locally or globally, are incoherent. Building on this conclusion, I argue that temporal directionality cannot be defined or explicated in terms of processes in time, such as the movements of celestial bodies, biological evolution or radioactive decay. In other words, while it is easy to imagine any process occurring in reverse, one cannot def…Read more
  •  26
    This paper claims that, to the extent that temporal direction figures in physics at all, it is found there as part of the extra-scientific language science employs. The asymmetry between “before” and “after” is not captured by the mathematics of any theory, nor can it be derived from the laws of any theory. This, I argue, is true even of theories whose laws are not time reversal invariant. Recognizing that physics does not yield temporal direction but receives it from the background in which phy…Read more
  •  24
    Dolev's ambitious project is to show that the traditional debate in the philosophy of time between the so-called ‘tensed’ and ‘tenseless’ theorists is not a sustainable one. The key to the negative portion argument is that both the tensed and tenseless view of time can be understood only from within their respective ontological frameworks. Moreover, that there is only really an appearance of understanding within these frameworks, since neither framework furnishes us with the wherewithal to genui…Read more
  •  22
    Realism, Tense, and Context Sensitivity
    In Guido Bonino, Greg Jesson & Javier Cumpa (eds.), Defending Realism: Ontological and Epistemological Investigations, De Gruyter. pp. 29-50. 2014.
  •  21
    Projections, Perceptual Constancy, and Geometry
    Review of Metaphysics 76 (2): 305-323. 2022.
    Abstract:The notions "retinal images" and "retinal projection" are ubiquitous in both the scientific and philosophical literature on perception. However, this article argues that they belong to the former and should be kept out of the latter. In the context of the empirical investigation of perception, projections play a crucial role, and help articulate pressing research problems. But, as part of the phenomenological and conceptual analysis of perception, projections give rise to untenable mode…Read more
  •  10
    Cosmological and Psychological Time (edited book)
    Springer. 2015.
    This book examines the many faces of philosophy of time, including the metaphysical aspects, natural science issues, and the consciousness of time. It brings together the different methodologies of investigating the philosophy of time. It does so to counter the growing fragmentation of the field with regard to discussions, and the existing cleavage between analytic and continental traditions in philosophy. The book’s multidirectional approach to the notion of time contributes to a better underst…Read more
  •  9
    Einstein vs. Bergson, Scientism vs. Humanism
    In Alessandra Campo & Simone Gozzano (eds.), Einstein Vs. Bergson: An Enduring Quarrel on Time, De Gruyter. pp. 15-34. 2021.
  •  7
    Time and Ontology: A Reply to Meyer
    Iyyun 58 (July 2009): 292-300. 2009.
    A reply to a review of Time and Realism, by Ulrich Meyer (Iyyun 58 [January 2009]: 92–101). It does not presuppose familiarity with the book. However, some of the claims that are made are given without the detail or the argumentation that accompany them in the book.
  •  4
    I argue that two theses, which get conflated tacitly but frequently in both the philosophical and the scientific literature on perception, must be distinguished. The first is that there are optimal viewpoints, viewpoints from which an object’s shape is more readily discernable than from others. The second is that there are privileged viewpoints, viewpoints that alone secure the veridicality of perception. I claim that phenomenology establishes the ubiquitousness of optimal viewpoints, but that t…Read more
  • Super-tasks and Temporal Continuity
    Iyyun 56 313-330. 2007.
  • Time From the Metaphysical and Anti-Metaphysical Viewpoints
    Dissertation, Harvard University. 1997.
    The idea that the present is "ontologically privileged" can be traced back to texts as early as St. Augustine's Confessions and Aristotle's Physics. The issue of the ontological status of tense continues to set the agenda in contemporary philosophy of time, which is dominated by two views. Proponents of the Tenseless View argue that all events are, in the timeless sense of 'are', equally real. Defenders of the rival Tensed View maintain that only present events are real, and that the reality of …Read more