Materialism is a specific philosophical view that these arguments apply. Just to show how differently a modalist view survives such attacks consider the following:
1) Infinite universe is eternal: Our past, present, and future of the universe just 'exists', and this whole (our timeline) is just one of many infinite collections that are 'out there'. This is not some sort of a hodgepodge world of stuff, made up of random assortments of timelines where anything happens in and out of 'sequence'. Rather, each possible world is based on a specific outcome taking place (e.g., Omega points), and since each outcome requires an ordered timeline, only timelines that are ordered exist. It is not odd that we happen to live in a universe that appears sequential (from the earliest time at the big bang) since every timeline is ordered and we just happen to live in one of those particular timelines.
2) Infinite universe is locked in the present: There is only the present, and the present evolves for an infinite collection of universes. All of these infinite collection of universes are infinitely old, and will exist in the infinite future as well. There is no first moment, if you travel back to the past, you can never reach the past with a finite speed of time travel, however, in this case, there is an infinite past - it just exists as a concept (i.e., concepts exist as they are the basis for all physical things).
I might add that a Zeno paradox is not a problem in terms of causality since relations can exist as part of the platonic structure. Relations that exist can be logical relations, mathematical relations, or even causal relations. Of course, causal relations might be the same as logico-mathematical relations in such a modal philosophy. |