Abstract

Early analytic philosopher G. E. Moore is not known for his metaphysics of time. Within Moore scholarship, his metaphysical views on time are under-studied; within the philosophy of time, his views are omitted. This chapter focuses on Moore’s most substantial, realist discussion of time, advanced in a set of 1910–1911 lectures, later published as Some Main Problems of Philosophy (hereafter, Main Problems). This chapter shows these lectures defend a Common Sense realism about time, presentism, and A-theory. Moore is not currently recognised as a presentist or an A-theorist, yet appreciating that he held both positions is important. This chapter argues that Moore offers the earliest sustained defence of presentism in English-language philosophy. And, if Bertrand Russell is the ‘father’ of B-theory, Moore is the ‘father’ of A-theory.