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    Carmelics

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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that If sentences express tensed propositions with built-in temporal orientation, 'in the past, Reagan was president' is true because the embedded proposition is itself past-directed, not because an atemporal content is checked at multiple times.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Tensed propositions raise identity questions: what makes a proposition 'past-directed' rather than merely about the past? How do they individuate?
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    • 2.Eternalist physics suggests time has no objective flow or direction, making built-in temporal orientation metaphysically puzzling and empirically unmotivated.
      ?

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    • 3.We can explain tense truth-conditions using atemporal propositions plus temporal context; invoking tensed propositions multiplies entities without necessity.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Tensed propositions capture how language users naturally represent temporal facts as intrinsically past, present, or future-oriented.
      ?

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    • 2.This view avoids the awkwardness of checking atemporal contents against multiple time-slices; temporal meaning is constitutive, not relational.
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    • 3.Sentences like 'soon it will rain' seem to express a forward-directed content that cannot be reduced to truth at other times.
      ?

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