CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2025
| Author | Tullio, Emanuele |
|---|---|
| Title | The Disclosing Window |
| Summary | In this dissertation I develop a new theory of time called the Disclosing Window Theory. In Chapter 1, I focus on Temporalism, the view that there are temporary truths. Temporalism is the building block of a metaphysical stance which traditionally goes under the name of A-theory. After disentangling different instances of Temporalism, I focus on one specific version of it – Non-Qualitative Temporalism – according to which the only temporary truths are truths involving individuals. In Chapter 2, I develop my favorite instance of Non-Qualitative Temporalism – the Disclosing Window Theory. The Disclosing Window, I argue, is defensible and in a position to respond to some prima facie objections having to do, respectively, with the temporal status of necessary truths and with epistemology. In Chapter 3, I illustrate and discuss an objection against Temporalism based on spacetime physics, both in a Neo-Newtonian and in a Relativistic Setting. In Chapter 4, I argue that the Disclosing Window is in a position to elude what I call the Objection from Spacetime. In particular, I show that the Disclosing Window, in contrast to most of its competing temporalist A-theories, (i) does not entail that a given portion of spatiotemporal structure (e.g. a hypersurface) is metaphysically privileged and (ii) does not need to presuppose that there is a privileged foliation of spacetime into hypersurfaces. In Chapter 5, I develop a conditional argument in favor of Temporalism. I argue that the B-theory of time, insofar as it is coupled with the perdurantist theory of persistence, entails untenable results concerning consciousness which can otherwise be avoided in a temporalist setting. My conclusion is that the Disclosing Window deserves a respectable place among the theories currently available to temporalists. |
| Supervisor | Huoranszki, Ferenc |
| Department | Philosophy PhD |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2025/tullio_emanuele.pdf |
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