Tooley on time

pp. 13-19

in: L. N. Oaklander (ed), The importance of time, Berlin, Springer, 2001

Abstract

Michael Tooley has written a most interesting book on time (Time, Tense, and Causation, 1997). In it he argues (i) that to understand time requires that one adopt the idea of a dynamic world, and (ii) that the choice between a tensed and a tenseless theory of facts and of truth should not be an either/or, but a both/and. That is, we must be prepared to accept both the notions of "truth at a time" and "truth simpliciter," of "existence or actuality at a time" and "existence or actuality simpliciter" (1997, pp. 40, 154, 303, 375, 381). Can Tooley have his cake and eat it too? Can he consistently combine the idea that we live in a world that is dynamic — that as he puts it what tenseless facts there are depends upon what time it is — with the notion of truth simpliciter?