There is a long tradition in philosophy of exploring analogies between the modal, the temporal, and the personal.1 This short book is an excellent addition to that tradition. It's clear, elegantly written, entertaining (in fact it is quite the page turner), and chock-full of interesting philosophical ideas.
The main thesis that Hare defends is what he calls egocentric presentism. This is (roughly) the view that the world contains one particular subject who is special. Hare thinks that this one, special subject is himself, but he encourages you to think it is you, and in general he thinks it makes sense for each subject to think of himself or herself as the special one. In what follows, I will take egocentric presentism to be about you.
In what way does egocentric presentism maintain that you are special? In a way that is perfectly analogous to the way in which...
