The Difference Between Presentism and Eternalism

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On a recent Ask Me Anything episode, someone said if you were living in a truly indeterministic universe, can you still be an eternalist? Because you don't know exactly what's going to happen in the future. My answer was sure. Why not? It's just that there is a future, but we don't know which one it is. So I definitely agree with you that eternalism and indeterminism are totally compatible. But I'm hardcore on your side. Eternalism totally consistent with independency. If presentism were true, what could make true these claims about the future or the past? That's a much more humble way for your YouTube enemy to get between

Is metaphysics like physics, but cooler? Or is it a relic of an outdated, pre-empirical way of thinking about the world? Closer to the former than the latter. Rather than building specific quantitative theories about the world, metaphysics aims to get a handle on the basic logical structures that help us think about it. I talk with philosopher Katie Elliott on how metaphysics helps us think about questions like counterfactuals, possible worlds, time travel, mathematical equivalence, and whether everything happens for a reason.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/24/244-katie-elliott-on-metaphysics-chance-and-time/

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Katrina (Katie) Elliott received her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. After being an assistant professor of philosophy at UCLA, she is now on the faculty at Brandeis. Her research covers topics in metaphysics and the philosophy of science, including explanation, chances, and the logic of time travel.

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