Single Idea 9664

[catalogued under 9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 3. Three-Dimensionalism]

Full Idea

The principal and decisive objection to endurance, as an account of the persistence of ordinary things, is the problem of temporary intrinsics. Persisting things change their intrinsic properties, such as their shape. My own shape keeps changing.

Gist of Idea

Endurance is the wrong account, because things change intrinsic properties like shape

Source

David Lewis (On the Plurality of Worlds [1986], 4.2)

Book Reference

Lewis,David: 'On the Plurality of Worlds' [Blackwell 2001], p.203


A Reaction

Presumably if something was going to endure through time it would need a shape. If it has no particular shape, it lacks identity? Lewis discusses the problem at length. Why is a precise shape essential to anything?