Abstract:

Michael Dummett’s “A Defence of McTaggart’s Proof of the Unreality of Time” offered an influential interpretation of McTaggart’s famous proof.  My aim in today’s talk is not to assess the cogency of McTaggart’s reasoning, but to evaluate the various theses about time and space which Dummett considers en route.  These reflections clarify the commitments of the A- and B-theories of time and make visible the flaw in Dummett’s interpretation of McTaggart and in Dummett’s own argument for the observer-dependence of temporal reality.