Friday, February 22, 2013

Induction, growing block theory and open future

According to induction, the future is like the past and present. But the past and present contain real events. Hence, probably, so does the future. Hence, probably, Growing Block theory, on which only the past and present contain real events, is false. Likewise, excluded middle is true for claims about the past and for claims about the present. So, probably, it's true for claims about the future. So, probably, Open Future views are false.

2 comments:

Heath White said...

Does it help if (1) we take a "de re" view of the referring phrase "the future" (this is not exactly the right terminology) as referring to particular events which are now future but will be present; and (2) we say that the future WILL BE like the past and that it WILL contain real events?

Alexander R Pruss said...

I don't think so. For according to growing block, past events not only WERE real, but they really ARE (tenseless) real. So if future events are like past ones, we would expect them to BE (tenseless) real, not just be about to be real.