Abstract
While there has been considerable recent criticism of perdurance theory in connection with a Humean understanding of causality, perdurance theory conjoined with causal realism has received relatively little attention. One might, then, form the impression that perdurance theory under the auspices of causal realism is a relatively safe view. I shall argue, however, to the contrary. My general strategy is to show that there is no plausible way of spelling out the perdurance position (of the non-Humean, causal realist sort). I implement this strategy by revealing several general problems concerning the causally-connected temporal parts scheme. I begin with a short account of perdurance theory. There follows a description of two general views of causality and the two subsequent accounts of the perduring object; then, the criticism.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Armstrong, D. M.: 1980, 'Identity Through Time', in Peter van Inwagen (ed.), Time and Cause: Essays Presented to Richard Taylor, D. Reidel, Boston, pp. 67-78.
Armstrong, D. M.: 1997, A World of States of Affairs, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Callender, C.: 2001, 'Humean Supervenience and Rotating Homogeneous Matter', Nous 110, 25-44.
Cohen, S. M. and G. B. Matthews: 1968, 'The One and the Many', Review of Metaphysics 21, 630-655.
Grünbaum, A.: 2001, 'Modern Science and Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion', in Wesley C. Salmon (ed.), Zeno's Paradoxes, Hackett Publishing Co., Indianapolis, pp. 200-250.
Hawley, K.: 1999, 'Persistence and Non-Supervenient Relations', Mind 108, 51-67.
Hume, D.: 1978, in P. H. Nidditch (ed.), A Treatise of Human Nature, 2nd edn., Oxford University Press, New York.
Kistler, M.: 1998, 'Reducing Causality to Transmission', Erkenntnis 48, 1-24.
Kripke, S.: 1980, 'Time and Identity', unpublished lectures.
Lewis, D. K.: 1976, 'Survival and Identity', Philosophical Papers, Vol. I, Oxford University Press, New York, 1983, pp. 55-72.
Lewis, D. K.: 1986a, On the Plurality of Worlds, Basil Blackwell, New York.
Lewis, D. K.: 1986b, Philosophical Papers, Vol. II, Oxford University Press, New York.
Norton, K. and G. Jaroszkiewicz: 1998, 'Principles of Discrete Time Mechanics: III. Quantum Field Theory', Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and General 31(3), 977-1000.
Perry, J.: 1975, 'The Problem of Personal Identity', in Personal Identity, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, pp. 3-30.
Quine, W. V. O.: 1960, Word and Object, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.
Reichenbach, H.: 1956, The Direction of Time, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
Russell, B.: 1929, Mysticism and Logic, Longman's Green, London.
Salmon, W. C.: 1984, Scientific Explanation and the Causal Structure of the World, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Shoemaker, S.: 1969, 'Time Without Change', Journal of Philosophy 66, 363-381.
Shoemaker, S.: 1979, 'Identity, Properties, and Causality', in Identity, Cause, and Mind, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1984, pp. 234-260.
Shoemaker, S.: 1988, 'On What There Are', Philosophical Topics 16, 201-223.
Taylor, R.: 1966, Action and Purpose, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Tooley, M.: 1987, Causation, Oxford University Press, New York.
Tooley, M.: 1990, 'The Nature of Causation: A Singularist Approach', Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary 16, 271-322.
Zimmerman, D.: 1997, 'Immanent Causation', in James E. Tomberlin (ed.), Philosophical Perspectives 11, Blackwell Publishers, Boston, pp. 433-471.
Zimmerman, D.: 1998, 'Temporal Parts and Supervenient Causation: The Incompatibility of Two Humean Doctrines', Australasian Journal of Philosophy 76, 265-288.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Oakes, M.G. Perdurance and Causal Realism. Erkenntnis 60, 205–227 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ERKE.0000012882.97341.8c
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:ERKE.0000012882.97341.8c