ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to distinguish different ways in which propositions can be independent of time. Some propositions – 'two and two make four' – are timeless in a strong sense: it would be meaningless to raise the question of whether two and two made four in the reign of Queen Anne, or will continue to make four at the turn of the century. In other cases the tenseless present expresses omnitemporality rather than strict timelessness. The chapter argues for at least a relative permanence of substance on grounds similar to those people argued for the omnitemporality of features. Language would be impossible if substantives could not continue to refer to the same thing throughout a conversation, just as much as if adjectives could not be applied independently of time. All reference to time has been made explicit, and there is no further implicit dependence on time, and the natural law, once stated in this form, is time-independent.
