Customer Reviews

The Tensed Theory of Time: A Critical Examination (Synthese Library)

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Highly recommended for those interested in jumping headfirst into the discussion surrounding the philosophy of time. In this volume, Craig tackles most of the semantical issues in tense: what is tense? can tense be reduced or translated tenselessly without loss of meaning? As an A-theoretical presentist, Craig defends ontological tense. In defense, he rebuts the semantical reduction of tense by Old B-theorist's and the token-reflexive truth conditions of tensed sentences offered by New B-theorist's. More positively, tense is a phenomenologically obvious aspect of the human psyche: personal experience is itself an argument for the objectivity of temporal becoming.

Craig believes his presentist ontology escapes McTaggart's Paradox due to his sole ontological affirmation of a referentially non-degenerative, infinitely divisible and temporally analyzable interval of time. Because neither past nor future exist, the entanglements of McTaggart's Paradox are avoided.

This work of Craig's is well-organized: sectioned neatly and developing in a systematically coherent fashion. It is densely informative reading--certainly no text for the faint-of-mind--, but, with some cognitive application, anyone truly interested can enter this text with a limited grasp on the subject and maintain pace with the author.

Along with her companion volume The Tenseless Theory of Time: A Critical Examination, Craig deserves 5 stars for breadth, ease, and research depth.