Presentism

Presentism is the view that only the present is real. It is one of the tensed theories of time and considered to be the 'common sense' view of time. In this paper presentism is evaluated with respect to some of the main objections. It is concluded that, although the center of attention of recent debates, thruthmaking problems for presentism can be settled in a satisfying way. The reason could be that in every day thinking and speech, presentism is the theory we actually use. However, further investigation shows that presentism has two unpalatable consequences: the view that time is composed of instants, and reductionism about the ontological status of temporal items. It is argued that both views (especially the first) are enough to dismiss the theory that entails them. Special theory of relativity, then, closes the case against presentism.