Abstract

This chapter discusses the semantics of our attitudes toward the past, present, and future. The traditional date and token-reflexive theories are reviewed. Arthur Prior’s ‘thank goodness that’s over’ argument against the B-theory is then described. It then introduces what the chapter calls a ‘person-reflexive’ theory, according to which the psychological role of a temporal attitude is explained by the fact that it concerns a relation between a person-stage and a time or event. This answers Prior’s challenge. It then introduces the crucial notion of a subject–environment functional (SEF) relation, which will also be important in Chapters 4 and 7. It discusses the claim that person-stages are unarticulated constituents of the contents of temporal attitudes and experiences. Finally the relation between thoughts about ‘past’, ‘present’, and ‘future’, and thoughts about ‘now’ is explained.