Realism, tense, and context sensitivity

The paper argues that tense and passage belong to the fundamental structure of reality. It thus defends a form of realism about tense, but at the same time it rejects all versions of presentism and of the A-theory. By critically assessing Aristotle's proof that the present is pointlike, the paper advances an analysis of the nature of the present which is not based on ontological hierarchies, and in which context sensitivity plays a key role. It then proceeds to reconcile context sensitivity with realism, arguing that not only are the two not antithetical to each other but that in fact they crucially complement each other.