著者

野矢 茂樹

出版者

日本科学哲学会

雑誌

科学哲学 (ISSN:02893428)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.37, no.2, pp.47-58, 2004

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Fatalism or logical determinism says that the future is determined on a very logical ground. In this paper, examining the fatalist argument critically, I am going to show how we can avoid the fatalist thesis. Aristotle discussed this problem and came to the conclusion that some statements about the future are neither true nor false. Following his suggestion, I farther claim that the future does not exist. That is the reason why any proper name included in a statement about the future has no referent. Therefore, as Aristotle said, statements about the future have no truth value. In the latter half of this paper, I will consider some problems with my claim what does a statement about the future mean and how is the past related to the present?