The Introduction of Tense Operators

Abstract

Two further additions are essential in the move from a topological logic of generic “places” to a genuinely temporal logic of specific “times”. The first of these — as yet unmentioned — is a relation­ship of temporal precedence to establish the series of earlier (prior or anterior) and later (posterior) times, of before or after (of what McTaggart calls the B-series). The second — with which we have already dealt — is the introduction of now,the “present time”, a privileged time with respect to which all anterior times are deter­mined as past and all posterior ones as future. (The series of past­present-future comprises what McTaggar calls the A-series and contrasts with the B-series: If one event is ever earlier than another, this is an unchanging relationship, while past-present-future deter­minations are changing — what was once future will someday be past.)