the facts about the past (and future) exist (in some way). — darthbarracuda
Somewhere, deep in the past, victims of the Holocaust are still "hurting". — darthbarracuda
The present cannot be negated or undone. We cannot ever alter the past or the future, only create new and/or different moments-- this mission to kill Hitler is literally pointless by these terms. It will not change anything about our past.
In this respect, concern for a present is all ethics require, for any past or future, any possible world with a (im)moral outcome, is defined in a present event. To care for any past or future, is to be concerned about a present. — TheWillowOfDarkness
Then how can we say anything true about the past? — darthbarracuda
But historians go about business with the assumption that there is, actually, a fact of the matter as to what happened. Things can't be evidence if there aren't any facts. — darthbarracuda
But they disagree about what they think actually happened in the past, implying they assume there is actually a fact about what happened. It's not just a game where they pretend there's facts just so they can have a job. — darthbarracuda
I still contend, however, that the phenomenology surrounding the ethics of past events is that these past events are still "real" in some sense, and aren't only a transcendent fact. Somewhere, deep in the past, victims of the Holocaust are still "hurting". — darthbarracuda
Whether this is actually true is another matter but it would seem to have some plausibility when we consider the B-theory of time, or eternalism. Facts, by themselves, do not "hurt".
Is temporality not primordial in your view? — bloodninja
I am oriented towards the future not the present. — bloodninja
one is the future existingly — bloodninja
Only as possible intent to action, but it is past as it happens. — Rich
a flow of memory pressing into the present — Rich
How is this not absurd? — bloodninja
Anticipation is the ground of all meaning. — bloodninja
is a cop-out.Everyone observes life differently — Rich
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