Single Idea 16206

[catalogued under 9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 5. Temporal Parts]

Full Idea

To account for change, stages and temporal parts must be as fine-grained as change: a material thing must have as many stages or parts as it is in incompatible states during its lifetime.

Gist of Idea

Stages must be as fine-grained in length as change itself, so any change is a new stage

Source

Katherine Hawley (How Things Persist [2001], 2.4)

Book Reference

Hawley,Katherine: 'How Things Persist' [OUP 2004], p.48


A Reaction

There seems to be a dilemma for stages here, of being so fat that they are divisible and change, or so thin that they barely exist. Lose-lose, I'd say.

Related Idea

Idea 16205 The stages of Stage Theory seem too thin to populate the world, or to be referred to [Hawley]