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Single Idea 16232

[from 'How Things Persist' by Katherine Hawley, in 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 1. Physical Objects ]

Full Idea

I suggest that our distinction between natural and unnatural (gerrymandered) objects corresponds to a distinction between series of stages which are and are not linked by certain non-supervenient relations.

Gist of Idea

An object is 'natural' if its stages are linked by certain non-supervenient relations

Source

Katherine Hawley (How Things Persist [2001], 5.5)

Book Reference

Hawley,Katherine: 'How Things Persist' [OUP 2004], p.156


A Reaction

See Idea 16213 for the nature of these 'relations'. I don't understand how an abstraction (as I take it) like a relation can unify a physical object. A trout-turkey is unified by a relation of some sort. Hawley defends Stage Theory.

Related Idea

Idea 16213 Stages of one thing are related by extrinsic counterfactual and causal relations [Hawley]