Abstract

McTaggart claimed that he proved the unreality of time. However, there is some obscurity in his time theory. This obscurity has not been questioned nearly one hundred years after his alleged proof of the unreality of time. This paper is an attempt of a rational reconstruction of his, time theory. This reconstruction reveals that his A-series and B-series have more complex structures than usually assumed. I propose to formalize both series by using tense relation symbols, such as P(t, e), N(t, e), F(t, e). This paper demonstrates that the reconstructed A-theory and B-theory are consistent, so that not only McTaggart's proof but also its reconstructions in Dummett (1960) and Mellor (1998) fail. In the last part, I point out that the dynamic time produces not inconsistency but formal inexpressibility.