Issues in Theoretical Diversity

Persistence, Composition, and Time
1. Auflage. Softcover version of original hardcover Auflage 2006
ISBN: 978-90-481-7324-2
Verlag: Springer Netherlands

Buch, Englisch, Band 106, 258 Seiten, Previously published in hardcover, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 417 g

Reihe: Philosophical Studies Series

Our world is full of composite objects that persist through time: dogs, persons, chairs and rocks. But in virtue of what do a bunch of little objects get to compose some bigger object, and how does that bigger object persist through time? This book aims to answer these questions, but it does so by looking at accounts of composition and persistence through a new methodological lens. It asks the question: what does it take for two theories to be genuinely different, and how can we know whether what seems like metaphysical disagreement is really just semantic disagreement?

By offering a framework within which to explore issues of theoretical diversity, this book provides a novel way of thinking about the inter-relationship between composition and persistence. Ultimately, it argues for a new way of thinking about these issues, a way that does not preserve the standard theoretical dichotomies between four-dimensionalist theories on the one hand, and three-dimensionalist theories on the other.

Zielgruppe

Professional/practitioner

Autoren/Hrsg.

Miller, Kristie Lyn

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Metaphysik, Ontologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Philosophie: Allgemeines, Methoden

Inhaltsverzeichnis

What is Metaphysical Equivalence?.- The Puzzles of Persistence.- Defining Our Terms.- Issues of Composition.- The Metaphysical Equivalence of Unitary Three- and Four-dimensionalism.- The Metaphysical Equivalence of Non-Unitary Three- and Four-dimensionalism.- Travelling in Time.- Empirical Equivalence and Special Relativity.