structure for all areas    |     expand these ideas

9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 6. Constitution of an Object

[objects should be understood as what they are made of]

21 ideas
Additional or removal of any part changes a thing, so people are never the same person [Epicharmus]
If someone squashed a horse to make a dog, something new would now exist [Mnesarchus]
Given that a table is made of molecules, could it not be molecular and still be this table? [Kripke]
If we imagine this table made of ice or different wood, we are imagining a different table [Kripke]
A different piece of wood could have been used for that table; constitution isn't identity [Wiggins on Kripke]
Is there a plausible Aristotelian notion of constitution, applicable to both physical and non-physical? [Fine,K]
There is no distinctive idea of constitution, because you can't say constitution begins and ends [Fine,K]
Constitution is not identity, as consideration of essential predicates shows [Rudder Baker]
The constitution view gives a unified account of the relation of persons/bodies, statues/bronze etc [Rudder Baker]
Statues essentially have relational properties lacked by lumps [Rudder Baker]
The constitution theory is endurantism plus more than one object in a place [Hawley]
Constitution theory needs sortal properties like 'being a sweater' to distinguish it from its thread [Hawley]
If the constitution view says thread and sweater are two things, why do we talk of one thing? [Hawley]
Mereology treats constitution as a criterion of identity, as shown in the axiom of extensionality [Harte,V]
'Composition' says things are their parts; 'constitution' says a whole substance is an object [Merricks]
It seems wrong that constitution entails that two objects are wholly co-located [Merricks]
A hand constitutes a fist (when clenched), but a fist is not composed of an augmented hand [Simons]
There are at least six versions of constitution being identity [Koslicki]
Constitution is identity (being in the same place), or it isn't (having different possibilities) [Wasserman]
Constitution is not identity, because it is an asymmetric dependence relation [Wasserman]
There are three main objections to seeing constitution as different from identity [Wasserman]