Being Past: The Past Record Principle and the Reality of the Past 

Paolo Lattanzi

Siegen Universität

Past Record is the principle that states: “if something was the case, then it is the case in the past”. Ross Cameron, in its defence of the Moving Spotlight Theory of time, explains clearly why A-theorists, which believe in the existence of past things, have to handle Past Record. He argues that this principle leads non-presentists A-theorist to objections coming from McTaggart’s paradox. Correira & Rosenkranz properly point out that if we interpret the formula “in the past” as a tense operator, then the principle represents no threat for those theories. I will argue that C&R are right in the first place and show that the argument for the compatibility of Past Record and non-presentist A-theories is valid not only when we interpret “in the past” as a tense operator, as they do, but also if we interpret it as a predicate of location. The argument is based on the notion of a truth operator, @(t), and the notion of “to be located”, LOC. I will then argue that if we follow C&R in accepting Past Record using those notions, we still have an issue coming from the so-called ‘zombie’ objection about the ontological status of temporal properties and temporal relations an enduring entity can instantiate through time. 

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