How to Make Presentism Consistent with Special Relativity

Abstract This chapter provides a response to the argument that presentism is incompatible with the special theory of relativity—and, in particular, with the relativity of simultaneity. More specifically, this chapter argues that presentists can respond to this argument not by claiming that there’s a privileged frame of reference, but by relativizing their view in a way that makes it compatible with special relativity. In particular, this chapter develops an original version of presentism—R-presentism—that says (somewhat roughly) that (a) for any frame of reference, all that exists is a 3-dimensional spatial manifold, and (b) there’s no frame-independent fact of the matter about which 3-dimensional manifold is…