Have a personal or library account? Click to login
Presentism, Actualism, and Fatalism Cover

Presentism, Actualism, and Fatalism

By: Bradley Rettler  
Open Access
|May 2023

Abstract

In recent papers, Philip Swenson (2016) has argued that presentism is incompatible with the conjunction of libertarianism and divine foreknowledge, and Michael Rea (2006) has argued that presentism is incompatible with the conjunction of libertarianism and bivalence. In this paper, I respond to Swenson’s and Rea’s arguments. In each case, I develop a parody argument that seeks to show that actualism -- the view that everything is actual -- is inconsistent with the conjunction of (in the case of Rea) libertarianism and bivalence and the conjunction of (in the case of Swenson) libertarianism and divine foreknowledge. Seeing how these parody arguments using actualism go wrong helps us see how the arguments using presentism go wrong. I conclude that we have not yet been provided with a sound argument that presentism is inconsistent with the conjunction of libertarianism and bivalence or that presentism is inconsistent with the conjunction of libertarianism and divine foreknowledge.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/met.112 | Journal eISSN: 2515-8279
Language: English
Submitted on: Feb 3, 2023
|
Accepted on: Apr 11, 2023
|
Published on: May 9, 2023
Published by: Ubiquity Press
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 1 issue per year

© 2023 Bradley Rettler, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.