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Future contingents

Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2016 12:17 pm
by Clive
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/future-contingents/

The New Testament makes loads of statements about the future - death where is thy sting.

But maybe there are huge problems with the truthiness of statements about the future?

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 4:41 am
by DCHindley
Clive wrote:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/future-contingents/

The New Testament makes loads of statements about the future - death where is thy sting.

But maybe there are huge problems with the truthiness of statements about the future?
Not sure I understand the question.

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 5:54 am
by andrewcriddle
DCHindley wrote:
Clive wrote:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/future-contingents/

The New Testament makes loads of statements about the future - death where is thy sting.

But maybe there are huge problems with the truthiness of statements about the future?
Not sure I understand the question.
IIUC the question is whether a statement about the future made now, e.g. it will rain in London on the 3rd of December 2016, can be true or false when made.
If the universe is entirely deterministic then all statements about the future are either necessarily true or impossible.
If, however, the universe is not fully deterministic then it is arguable that statements about non-deterministic future events are neither true nor false when made.

Andrew Criddle

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:11 am
by Clive
andrewcriddle wrote:
DCHindley wrote:
Clive wrote:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/future-contingents/

The New Testament makes loads of statements about the future - death where is thy sting.

But maybe there are huge problems with the truthiness of statements about the future?
Not sure I understand the question.
IIUC the question is whether a statement about the future made now, e.g. it will rain in London on the 3rd of December 2016, can be true or false when made.
If the universe is entirely deterministic then all statements about the future are either necessarily true or impossible.
If, however, the universe is not fully deterministic then it is arguable that statements about non-deterministic future events are neither true nor false when made.

Andrew Criddle
Precisely:-)

So what are we to make of texts like the New Testament that seem to specialise in future contingents?

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:17 am
by iskander
Clive wrote:...

Precisely:-)

So what are we to make of texts like the New Testament that seem to specialise in future contingents?
Could you give us one example ?

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:23 am
by Clive
Already Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) was aware of the problem of future contingents. Chapter IX of his work, On Interpretation, is without doubt the philosophical text which has had the greatest impact on the debate about the relations between time, truth, and possibility. The discussion in this text certainly bears witness to the fact that Ancient philosophy was highly conscious of tense-logical problems. Central to the discussion in this famous Aristotelian text is the question of how to interpret the following two statements:

“Tomorrow there will be a sea-battle”
“Tomorrow there will not be a sea-battle”
Aristotle considered questions like: Should we say that one of these statements is true today and the other false? How can we make a clear distinction between what is going to happen tomorrow and what must happen tomorrow? (See On Interpretation, 18 b 23 ff.).
Is the New Testament a peculiar set of texts that continually play with future contingents and are the authors aware of the issues surrounding these types of statements " today you will be with me in paradise"

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:24 am
by Clive
My father's mansion

The trump shall sound

There are so many examples it is ridiculous. Is it deliberate?

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:26 am
by Clive
Ok, the tradition is much older :-) lions laying down with lambs, swords into ploughshares ....

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:31 am
by Clive
If gmark is original, might it have been written as a form of where's wally, : spot the logical,and philosophical issues?

Re: Future contingents

Posted: Sat Sep 03, 2016 7:34 am
by iskander
Clive wrote:My father's mansion

The trump shall sound

There are so many examples it is ridiculous. Is it deliberate?
It is indeed ridiculous.