Card 1.4.1 · Root I — Metaphysics
Persistence and Change
If you are bent when sitting and straight when standing, how can both be true of you?
This node asks how a thing can remain the same thing while its properties alter.
Where it sits
Under 1.4 Philosophy of time. Borders 1.1.1 Substance theory, 1.3.2 Personal identity, 1.4 Time.
The rival answers
| Position | How a thing persists | The cost |
|---|---|---|
| Endurantism | Wholly present at every moment it exists | Must relativise intrinsic properties to times |
| Perdurantism | Extended through time, with temporal parts | You are never wholly present at any moment |
| Exdurantism | A series of momentary stages, related by counterparts | Strictly, nothing persists at all |
| Presentism | Only the present exists, so there is nothing to conflict | Inherits every difficulty at 1.4 |
| Momentariness | Nothing persists; apparent continuity is inference | Must explain the inference |
Key figures
| Figure | Dates | Tradition | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heraclitus | c. 540–480 BCE | Greek | The river; change as the condition of things |
| Aristotle | 384–322 BCE | Greek | Substance persisting through accidental change |
| Vasubandhu | c. 4th–5th c. CE | Indian Buddhist | Momentariness; persistence as inference from resemblance |
| David Lewis | 1941–2001 | Analytic | Perdurantism; the problem of temporary intrinsics |
| Peter van Inwagen | b. 1942 | Analytic | Endurantism defended |
| Theodore Sider | b. 1967 | Analytic | Four-dimensionalism systematised |
Connections
→ 1.4 · ↔ 1.1.1, 1.1.3, 1.3.2, 1.6 · ◇ endurantism, perdurantism, exdurantism, presentism · ○ Axial Age; Classical; Modern; Table 1
→ narrower questions · ↔ questions it borders · ◇ the positions, mapped in Part III of the book · ○ the eras and comparison tables (Parts IV and V)
The full card is in the book
In The Coordinates of Thought this card goes on to a worked example that sets the answers against one case, and to where the question touches daily life — page 59.
On Coordinates of Thought
Conversations about this question in Time & space:
- Leibniz had the better of the argument with Clarke 5 replies
- Reading group: McTaggart’s ‘The Unreality of Time’ and Prior’s ‘Thank Goodness That’s Over’ 5 replies
- If the past no longer exists, what exactly is my regret about? 5 replies
- What is the “block universe”, and does relativity force it on us? 4 replies
- Mulla Sadra’s substantial motion: is everything changing at the level of substance? 4 replies