Jonathan Tallant (University of Nottingham)
(Work developed with David Ingram)
3-5pm, 25th Feb
Dalhousie 2F15
University
And online on Teams: SCCP Seminar – Jonathan Tallant on Presentism | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams
Abstract:
Our aims here are threefold. First, we will say something about presentism-the view in the philosophy of time that only present objects exist. There is much more to be said. Second, we will step back a little to consider the question that presentism is supposed to answer. That is, if ‘only present objects exist’ (or some appropriate precisification of the slogan) is the answer to a philosophical question, then (i) what is the question? And (ii) is it the right question to ask? We will suggest that the question (or questions) presentists are answering is (/are) not a good one to ask. This leads us naturally to our third aim: to articulate a question that presentists, or the heirs of presentism, should try to answer. In pursuing these aims, we provide the reader with a sense of how we have reached the current position in the literature, as well as how we might move it along.
Jonathan Tallant is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, where his research focuses on core problems in analytic metaphysics, particularly the philosophy of time and metaphysical grounding. He is currently serving as the Academic Director of the Institute for Professional and Work Based Learning, where he leads on strategy for degree apprenticeships and continuing professional development.
He is the author of Metaphysics: An Introduction (Continuum, 2011) and co-author with Sam Baron and Kristie Miller of Out of Time: A Philosophical Investigation of Timelessness (Oxford University Press, 2022). His work has appeared in leading philosophy journals including Philosophical Studies, Analysis, Erkenntnis, and Australasian Journal of Philosophy.