Persistence and spacetime /

How do material objects persist through time and survive change? Are they three-dimensional entities extended in space, or are they four-dimensional spacetime 'worms'? Balashov shows how the theory of relativity supports four-dimensionalism and in so doing illuminates a wide range of metap...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Balashov, Yuri, 1960-
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2010.
Subjects:
Online Access:Connect to the full text of this electronic book
Table of Contents:
  • Background and assumptions. Persistence and philosophy of time
  • Atomism and composition
  • Scope
  • Some matters of methodology
  • Persistence, location, and multilocation in spacetime. Endurance, perdurance, exdurance : some pictures
  • More pictures
  • Temporal modification and the "problem of temporary intrinsics"
  • Persistence, location, and multilocation in generic spacetime
  • An alternative classification
  • Classical and relativistic spacetime. Newtonian spacetime
  • Neo-Newtonian (Galilean) spacetime
  • Reference frames and coordinate systems
  • Galilean transformations in spacetime
  • Special relativistic spacetime
  • Length contraction and time dilation
  • Invariant properties of special relativistic spacetime
  • Persisting objects in classical spacetime. Enduring, perduring, and exduring objects in Galilean spacetime
  • The argument from vagueness
  • From minimal D-fusions to temporal parts
  • Motivating a sharp cutoff
  • Some objections and replies
  • Implications
  • Persisting objects in Minkowski spacetime. Enduring, perduring, and exduring objects in Minkowski spacetime
  • Flat and curved achronal regions in Minkowski spacetime
  • Early reflections on persisting objects in Minkowski spacetime : Quine and Smart
  • "Profligate ontology"?
  • Is achronal universalism tenable in Minkowski spacetime?
  • "Crisscrossing" and immanent causation
  • Conclusion
  • Coexistence in spacetime. The notion of coexistence
  • Desiderata
  • Coexistence in Galilean spacetime
  • Coexistence in Minkowski spacetime : CASH
  • Alexandrov-Stein present and Alexandrov-Stein coexistence
  • AS-Coexistence v. CASH : symmetry, multigrade, and objectivity
  • AS-coexistence v. CASH : relevance
  • The mixed past of coexistence
  • No need in the extended now
  • Strange coexistence? Coexistence and existence@
  • The asymmetry thesis
  • The absurdity thesis
  • Collective CASH value of coexistence
  • Collective existence@ and coexistence in classical spacetime
  • Collective existence@ and coexistence in Minkowski spacetime
  • Contextuality
  • Chronological incoherence
  • Some objections
  • Shapes and other arrangements in Minkowski spacetime. How rigid is a granite block?
  • Perspectives in space
  • Perspectives in spacetime
  • Are shapes intrinsic to objects?
  • The causal objection
  • The micro-reductive objection
  • Pegs, boards, and shapes
  • Perduring objects exist.