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Single Idea 13437

[filed under theme 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 3. Unity Problems / b. Cat and its tail ]

Full Idea

At t1 there is a whole CAR, and a PART of it, which is everything except the right front wheel. At t2 the wheel is removed, leaving just PART, so that CAR is now PART. But PART was a proper part of CAR, and CAR had the front wheel. Different properties!

Gist of Idea

A CAR and its major PART can become identical, yet seem to have different properties

Source

André Gallois (Occasions of Identity [1998], 1.II)

Book Ref

Gallois,André: 'Occasions of Identity' [' 1998], p.15


A Reaction

[compressed summary] The problem is generated by appealing to Leibniz's Law. My immediate reaction is that this is the sort of trouble you get into if you include such temporal truths about things as 'properties'.


The 8 ideas with the same theme [objects contained within other objects]:

Dion and Theon coexist, but Theon lacks a foot. If Dion loses a foot, he ousts Theon? [Chrysippus, by Philo of Alexandria]
If cats are vague, we deny that the many cats are one, or deny that the one cat is many [Lewis]
Tib goes out of existence when the tail is lost, because Tib was never the 'cat' [Burke,M, by Sider]
A CAR and its major PART can become identical, yet seem to have different properties [Gallois]
If Tib is all of Tibbles bar her tail, when Tibbles loses her tail, two different things become one [Sider]
Are sortals spatially maximal - so no cat part is allowed to be a cat? [Hawley]
Does Tibbles remain the same cat when it loses its tail? [Simons]
Tibbles isn't Tib-plus-tail, because Tibbles can survive its loss, but the sum can't [Simons]