Intuitively, the future is open and the past fixed: there is something we can do about the future but not the past. Some metaphysicians believe that a proper metaphysics of time must vindicate this intuition. Whereas philosophers have focused on the future and the past, the status of the present remains relatively unexplored. Drawing on resources from action theory, I argue that there is something we can do about the present just like there is something we can do about the future. Hence, a proper metaphysics of the open future should allow for an open present as well. I argue that none of the major metaphysics of the open future currently available can accommodate an open present adequately. Finally, I’ll show that, surprisingly, the shrinking block metaphysics can.

直觉上，未来是开放的，过去是固定的：关于未来，我们可以做些事情，而过去则不能。一些形而上学家认为，适当的时间形而上学必须证明这种直觉。哲学家专注于未来和过去，而现在的状况仍未得到充分探索。我认为，从行动理论中汲取资源，我们可以为当前做些事情，就像我们可以为未来做些事情一样。因此，对开放未来的适当形而上学也应该允许开放存在。我认为，当前可用的开放未来的主要形而上学都无法充分容纳开放的当下。最后，我将令人惊讶地证明，缩小的形而上学可以做到。