A presentist is asked: 'Caesar was murdered — what makes that statement true if Caesar no longer exists?' Which answer is unavailable to the presentist?
AAbstract objects representing past states of affairs (ersatz past times)
BPrimitive 'was' operators that don't require past entities to exist
CThe fact that Caesar exists at his temporal location in a four-dimensional spacetime manifold
DIndividual essences (haecceities) that persist abstractly even after the individual ceases to exist
Option C is the eternalist's solution: it presupposes that Caesar exists at some temporal location, which is exactly what presentism denies. Presentists must find truthmakers within the current ontology (only present things exist). Options A, B, and D are all strategies presentists have actually proposed: abstract representations of past states, primitive temporal operators that don't quantify over past entities, or abstract individual essences. The eternalist faces no truthmaker problem because Caesar is real at his temporal coordinates.
Question 2 Multiple Choice
Special relativity poses a challenge to presentism primarily because:
ARelativity implies that the past is as ontologically real as the present, directly supporting eternalism
BRelativity eliminates absolute simultaneity, so there is no observer-independent 'present moment' for presentism to privilege
CRelativity shows that time is an illusion, rendering all temporal ontology meaningless
DRelativity implies that time travel is possible, which would allow past entities to become present again
In special relativity, whether two spatially separated events are simultaneous is frame-relative — there is no absolute, observer-independent 'now.' Presentism requires the present to be objectively special: only present things exist. But if 'the present' is frame-relative, presentism must either relativize existence to frames or introduce a privileged frame, both of which are deeply problematic. Option A mischaracterizes the argument: relativity challenges presentism's coherence, but it does not directly assert that the past is real in the presentist's sense.
Question 3 True / False
Eternalism implies that the future is causally determined, since future events are already real in the four-dimensional block.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: False
This is the most persistent misconception about eternalism. Eternalism holds that future events are as real as past ones — they exist at their temporal locations. But this says nothing about whether those events are causally determined by prior events. Causal determinism is a separate doctrine. An eternalist can consistently hold that future choices are undetermined while also holding that once made, those events exist eternally at their temporal locations. The reality of a future event is independent of whether it was predetermined.
Question 4 True / False
The growing block theory faces a challenge from special relativity similar to the challenge presentism faces.
TTrue
FFalse
Answer: True
Growing block theory holds that the past and present exist but the future does not, implying an objective boundary between the real and the unreal. Special relativity makes such a boundary problematic: different observers in different reference frames disagree about which events count as simultaneous, so there is no observer-independent line separating the real past-present from the unreal future. This is the same frame-relativity problem that troubles presentism's privileged present.
Question 5 Short Answer
What is the 'problem of cross-temporal relations and truthmakers' for presentism, and why doesn't eternalism face the same problem?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: The problem: if only the present exists, past-tense statements like 'Caesar was murdered' seem to lack a truthmaker — there is no Caesar in the present to serve as a constituent of any fact. Something must make the statement true, but what? Presentists propose solutions: abstract representations of past times, primitive temporal operators, or abstract individual essences. Eternalists face no such problem: Caesar exists at his temporal location in the four-dimensional manifold, and that fact makes the tensed statement true.
Truthmaker theory holds that every true proposition must be made true by something that exists. Presentism creates a crisis by eliminating everything except the present from existence, making it hard to ground truths about what no longer exists. Eternalism's four-dimensional ontology handles this elegantly: tensed statements are made true by facts at temporal locations, which are as real as spatial locations. This asymmetry is one of the strongest systematic arguments for eternalism.