Abstract
The ontology of time is dominated by two competing theories: presentism and eternalism. Common sense argues in favor of presentism, while contemporary physics supports eternalism. What's more, these two incompatible theories have radically different ontological consequences for the persistence of entities in time. Eternalism seems logically to imply quadridimentionalism, whereas presentism seems logically to imply tridimentionalism. We wish to show that it is possible to construct an ontology that is both presentist and eternalist, and in which there are both three-dimensional and four-dimensional entities. To do this, we're going to use the theory of modes of being, also known as "ontological pluralism". We'll see how it's possible to assert that there are two distinct modes of being, an atemporal mode of being - that of mind-independent entities - and a temporal mode of being - that of conscious beings and entities dependent on them.
