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INGTHORSSON, R. D. McTaggart's Paradox. New York: Routledge, 2016. xiii + 154 pp. Cloth, $140.00-John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart's infamous argument for the unreality of time (or McTaggart's paradox) has left an enduring impression on the philosophy of time. Few contemporary philosophers agree with McTaggart's conclusion that time is unreal, but the argument is discussed frequently, and the core debate in the philosophy of time, between so-called A theorists and В theorists, turns on insights and distinctions that originated with McTaggart. Ingthorsson's valuable book is a focused study of the paradox, which offers an insight into McTaggart's overall metaphysical system and discusses a range of responses to the paradox.
Ingthorsson begins by challenging the widely held assumption that "McTaggart's argument for the unreality of time is a stand-alone argument that does not rely on any metaphysical assumptions." For Ingthorsson, McTaggart's paradox is not asserted as a discrete argument, to be understood and assessed in isolation; Ingthorsson asserts that the paradox must be understood alongside McTaggart's methodological and ontological idealism, keeping in mind his views on, for example, "the general nature of the existent in Absolute Reality." Thus, the task of chapter 2-before the...