Abstract

Several versions of the Reduction Thesis, which holds that A-determinations of events are reducible to B-relations of succession and simultaneity, are explored and critically evaluated. In particular, various theories of meaning and reference--which have recently been put forth by Keith Donnellan, Robert Stalnaker, Alvin Plantinga, Saul Kripke, and John Perry--are employed for the purpose of mounting a reduction of A-determinations to B-relations. After finding the more traditional versions of the Reduction Thesis to be wanting, a new version of the Reduction Thesis, called 'the co-reporting version', is put forth and defended. While the co-reporting version does not hold that temporal indexical terms can be eliminated from a language without a loss of factual information, it does hold that every A-proposition reports one and the same state of affairs as does a B-proposition . By showing that time is nothing over and above a series of moments which are ordered in terms of their B-relations, the co-reporting version helps to achieve the purpose of demystifying the notion of an A-determination, since it shows that science has a clear role in determining what the nature of an A-determination consists of.