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.