Criticism
Recently several philosophers, David Braddon-Mitchell (2004), Craig Bourne and Trenton Merricks have said that if the Growing Block View is correct we have to say that we don't know whether now is now. (The first occurrence of "now" is an indexical and the second occurrence of "now" is the objective tensed property. The sentence implies the sentence: "This part of spacetime has the property of being present".)
Take Socrates discussing, in the past, with Gorgias, and at the same time thinking that this (the discussion) is occurring now. According to the growing Block View tense is a real property of the world so his thought is about now - he thinks, tenselessly, that his thought is occurring on the edge of being - the objective present. But we know he is wrong, because he is in the past, he doesn't know that now is now. But how can we be sure we are not in the same position? There is nothing special with Socrates. Therefore we don't know whether now is now.
However, some have argued that there is an ontological distinction between the past and the present. For instance, Forrest (2004) argues that although there exists a past, it is lifeless and inactive. Consciousness, as well as the flow of time is not active within the past and can only occur at the boundary of the block universe in which the present exists.
Read more about this topic: Growing Block Universe
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