eternalisme

Eternalisme, or eternalisme in Dutch, is a position in the philosophy of time asserting that all points in time—past, present, and future—are equally real. In this view, there is no ontological privilege granted to the present moment, and events do not come into being as time passes. Becoming is explained as a feature of conscious perspective rather than a real movement in time.

The core idea is often linked to the B-theory of time and to four-dimensionalism: objects are extended through time as well as through space, and persistence is akin to having temporal parts. Statements about what is “now” or what will “become” are tensed experiences rather than reflections of a changing ontology. The truth of statements about different times depends on their place within the spacetime manifold, not on a special present moment.

Eternalism is frequently motivated by the physics of relativity, especially the relativity of simultaneity and the spacetime framework introduced by Minkowski. The metaphor of the block universe—where all times are laid out in a single four-dimensional block—is commonly used to illustrate the view.

Critics of eternalism raise concerns about the phenomenology of time, the special status of the present, and issues related to free will and moral responsibility. Proponents argue that the apparent flow of time can be explained by cognitive processes and that determinism or agency can be understood within a fixed temporal structure.

Historical development includes early influences in the history of time and a prominent modern articulation by philosophers such as David Lewis, among others, who defend a four-dimensional, tenseless account of temporal ontology. Presentism and growing-block theory are the main competing positions in the debate.