more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 14561

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

Full Idea

Perdurantism tends to go with the view that it is essentially contingent what follows what, because it is no part of the essence of temporal parts that they be arranged in any particular order.

Clarification

'Perdurantism' says objects extend in time as well as in space

Gist of Idea

Perdurantism imposes no order on temporal parts, so sequences of events are contingent

Source

S.Mumford/R.Lill Anjum (Getting Causes from Powers [2011], 5.5 1)

Book Ref

Anjum,R.J./Mumford,S.: 'Getting Causes from Powers' [OUP 2011], p.116


A Reaction

Nice. There is nothing illogical, then, in elderly me intervening between childish me and middle-aged me. Essentialists like me must clearly oppose this view. Elderly me must be preceded and caused by middle-aged me.


The 21 ideas with the same theme [things have parts in time, as they do in space]:

Temporal parts is a crazy doctrine, because it entails constantly creating stuff ex nihilo [Thomson, by Koslicki]
How can point-duration slices of people have beliefs or desires? [Thomson]
You can't have the concept of a 'stage' if you lack the concept of an object [Ayers]
Temporal 'parts' cannot be separated or rearranged [Ayers]
Stage theorists accept four-dimensionalism, but call each stage a whole object [Noonan]
Three-dimensionalist can accept temporal parts, as things enduring only for an instant [Fine,K]
Even a three-dimensionalist might identify temporal parts, in their thinking [Fine,K]
Temporal parts exist, but are not prior building blocks for objects [Sider]
Temporal parts are instantaneous [Sider]
How can an instantaneous stage believe anything, if beliefs take time? [Sider]
Four-dimensionalism says temporal parts are caused (through laws of motion) by previous temporal parts [Sider]
Stage Theory seems to miss out the link between stages of the same object [Hawley]
Stage Theory says every stage is a distinct object, which gives too many objects [Hawley]
The stages of Stage Theory seem too thin to populate the world, or to be referred to [Hawley]
Stages must be as fine-grained in length as change itself, so any change is a new stage [Hawley]
An isolated stage can't be a banana (which involves suitable relations to other stages) [Hawley]
Stages of one thing are related by extrinsic counterfactual and causal relations [Hawley]
We must explain change amongst 'momentary entities', or else the world is inexplicable [Haslanger]
If the things which exist prior to now are totally distinct, they need not have existed [Haslanger]
You believe you existed last year, but your segment doesn't, so they have different beliefs [Merricks]
Perdurantism imposes no order on temporal parts, so sequences of events are contingent [Mumford/Anjum]