Presentation2
Speaker: Kajimoto Naoyuki
Date and Time: 2019/07/10
Venue: Universtiy of Wollongong (Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference)
Title: Presentism and phenomenology as of the privileged present
We seem to have phenomenology as of the privileged present. That is, we seem to feel as if the present is somewhat privileged. In philosophy of time it is widely accepted that our phenomenology as of the privileged present offers reason to prefer presentism to eternalism since presentists can offer better explanation of why we seem to have phenomenology as of the privileged present than eternalists. For presentists can argue that we feel as if the present is somewhat privileged since only the present is real. On the other hand, since eternalists hold that the past, present, and future are equally real, they need to explain why we feel as if the present is privileged although the world is not in such a way.
In this paper I will argue that presentists’ explanation is not better than eternalists’ explanation given how both explain our phenomenology as of the privileged present. I will conclude that our phenomenology as of the privileged present does not offer motivation for presentism.