Maybe it’s not really an empirical fact, but then do you really think that past still “exist” and future already “exist” as well as present does ?
My position is very close to the position of Max Tegmark, Gary Drescher and other compatibilist B-theorists, so yes, I really really honestly believe that past and future exist as well as present does. At least in some sense of the word “exists”, but this is not a cop-out, the sense I used it must be very similar to the sense you used it. There is another reasonable sense of the word “exists” (corresponding to Tegmark’s frog’s view), where only some of the past and present exists, and not too much of the future.
The point is, you have several choices about how to consistently formalize your vague statement, but whichever you choose, your “empirical fact” will be factually incorrect.
your “empirical fact” will be factually incorrect.
I really doubt it. how could you factually prove that the past or the future exist ?
Let’s say my position is a very narrow version of Tegmark’s view, and that I call “present” (with a certain thickness) the parts of the past and future that actually “exist”.
First of all, I should have wrote “logically inconsistent”, but “factually incorrect” sounded better. :) More importantly, it is possible that I misinterpreted what you wrote:
here is an empirical fact : only the present exists, other instants (past or future) do not exist.
I interpreted this as a positive statement that an observer-independent present does actually exist, hundred percent. This is in contradiction with special relativity, as someone else already noted. Reading other comments from you in this thread, it seems like this is not what you meant. It is more like you choose the second option of my dichotomy: the frog’s view instead of the bird’s view. I have no problem with that.
My position is very close to the position of Max Tegmark, Gary Drescher and other compatibilist B-theorists, so yes, I really really honestly believe that past and future exist as well as present does. At least in some sense of the word “exists”, but this is not a cop-out, the sense I used it must be very similar to the sense you used it. There is another reasonable sense of the word “exists” (corresponding to Tegmark’s frog’s view), where only some of the past and present exists, and not too much of the future.
The point is, you have several choices about how to consistently formalize your vague statement, but whichever you choose, your “empirical fact” will be factually incorrect.
I really doubt it. how could you factually prove that the past or the future exist ?
Let’s say my position is a very narrow version of Tegmark’s view, and that I call “present” (with a certain thickness) the parts of the past and future that actually “exist”.
First of all, I should have wrote “logically inconsistent”, but “factually incorrect” sounded better. :) More importantly, it is possible that I misinterpreted what you wrote:
I interpreted this as a positive statement that an observer-independent present does actually exist, hundred percent. This is in contradiction with special relativity, as someone else already noted. Reading other comments from you in this thread, it seems like this is not what you meant. It is more like you choose the second option of my dichotomy: the frog’s view instead of the bird’s view. I have no problem with that.