Time and human nature: a modest defense of eternalism
Abstract
Eternalism is the view that all times are real and no time is objectively past,
present or future. It is commonly assumed that eternalism creates problems for robust
conceptions of human nature, since the freedom, responsibility and rationality that
such conceptions typically require seem for various reasons to demand a metaphysical
distinction between the present and other times. My purpose is to show, to the
contrary, that eternalism is fully compatible with freedom, responsibility and
rationality, thereby laying the essential groundwork for a positive defense of
eternalism as the correct theory of time. My project has a number of important
ramifications, not the least of which is that it points the way towards a satisfying
integration of the best scientific, theological, and humane learning.