Full Idea
Only metaphysics can vindicate a judgement that a caterpillar survives to become a butterfly, but a pig does not survive to become pork, or that water survives as ice, but that paper does not survive as ash.
Gist of Idea
Only metaphysics can decide whether identity survives through change
Source
E.J. Lowe (The Possibility of Metaphysics [1998], 8.2)
Book Reference
Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.179
A Reaction
The works of Lowe, and other modern heroes, have shown that these real questions can be pursued intensively into areas where no scientist, or even theologian, would dare to tread.