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Alexandre Billon (IJN, Lille University) "The Present Problem Problem"

Tuesday, December 4 at 16.30 - Salle de réunion, Pavillon Jardin, ENS, 29, rue d’Ulm 75005.
Alexandre Billon (IJN visitor from Lille University)
"The Present Problem Problem" 

Abstract :

We know that our time is present. We are actually certain of that. What might be less obvious is how we can have such a knowledge. Some philosophers have indeed argued that this question is problematic and that it could not be answered unless we embrace presentism or the Block view. I argue that presentism and the Block view are neither necessary nor sufficient to explain our knowledge that we are present and to solve the ‘Present Problem’. I argue more broadly that no transcendental argument deriving a non trivial ontological claim from our epistemological situation toward the present can be cogent and that there is no Present Problem. The only genuine question in the vicinity is why there might have seemed to be one in the first place, something we might call the Present Problem Problem.

 

 

 

 

 


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