ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Laszlo E. Szabo" <leszabo AT hps.elte.hu>]

Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University
Budapest, Pazmany P. setany 1/A

PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE SEMINAR
(http://hps.elte.hu/seminar)
________________________________________________
28 May 4:00 PM 6th floor 6.54
(Language: English, except all participants speak Hungarian)

M a r t a   U j v a r i
Philosophy, Budapest University of Economic Sciences

Time, Tense and the 'Indexical Fallacy' in McTaggart's Argument

The tenser-detenser debate has got impetus from the new indexical, token
reflexive analysis of tensed
 language which renders the truth conditions of tensed sentences in
tenseless terms. According to
 detensers like Mellor and Poidevin what Taggart's argument shows is
that the A-series account of time is  a misconstrual leading to regress.
Tenser E.J. Lowe, however, argues that the A-regress cannot even  have a
start since it rests on the indexical fallacy of using compound tenses.
His claim, roughly, is that  temporal indexicals just like any other
indexicals cannot be iterated without violating the contextual
constraints on the use, as opposed to the mention, of indexicals.
Further, Lowe claims that extending  Taggart's fallacious argument to
space and personality one could equally argue for the irreality of
places  and persons.
I will show that Lowe's argument is incoherent. When introducing the
indexical fallacy he makes appeal
to the analogy between temporal and other indexicals. But when he
defends the tensed view he makes
appeal to Taggart's first two premises ( 1. time involves change
essentially; 2.change can be explained
only in terms of the A-series) which invite a disanalogy between
temporal and other indexicals. So, the
indexical fallacy cannot be repeated, pace Lowe, for space and person
within the context of McTaggart's argument. Consequently, the threat of
the irreality of places and persons does not arise along taggartian
lines.
The other conclusion with broader implications is that even the
indexical analysis shows the specific
metaphysical character of time in consonance with the metaphysical
tradition.

The organizer of the seminar:   László E. Szabó

--
Laszlo E. Szabo
Department of Theoretical Physics
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
Eotvos University, Budapest
H-1518 Budapest, Pf. 32, Hungary
Phone/Fax: (36-1)372-2924
Home: (36-1) 200-7318
Mobil/SMS: (36) 20-366-1172
http://hps.elte.hu/~leszabo