Real Fourdimensionalism: An Essay in the Ontology of Persistence and Mind

Description

This book explores persistence, taking human beings as an example case. It investigates how concrete particulars stay the same during their temporal carriers while changing significantly. Themes of relativity, structural realism, 4-dimensional ontologies and different strains of panpsychism are amongst those addressed in this work. Beginning with an exploration of the puzzle of persistence, early chapters look at philosophers’ perspectives and models of persistence. Competitors in the debate are introduced, from classical 3-dimensionalism to two flavors of 4-dimensionalism, namely worm theory and stage theory. The second part of the book explores the various challenges to 4-dimensionalism and develops a positive taxonomy of those questions that the reasonable proponent of 4-dimensionlism needs to answer. In the third part of the book readers may explore an ontology at the interface of analytic metaphysics and philosophy of mind, called Real Fourdimensionalism, or more specifically: Physicalistic Stage-Panexperientialism (PSP). This is a version of panexperiential stage theory and its alleged model of persistence-as-deciding answers the questions of the taxonomy. This book makes a substantial contribution to debates concerning the status, extent and viability of both stage theoretic models of persistence as well as non-reductive, naturalistic models of persistence. It will be of interest to graduates and scholars involved in analytic metaphysics, as well as the philosophy of mind, especially those specializing in questions of persistence and the ontology of the mind. Front Matter ....Pages i-xi Front Matter ....Pages 1-1 Persistence? From a Philosopher’s Point of View (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 3-6 Models of Persistence (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 7-18 Summary of the Work (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 19-22 Front Matter ....Pages 23-23 Toward a Positive Taxonomy (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 25-87 The Challenge of Insufficient Binding (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 89-117 Front Matter ....Pages 119-119 A Metaphilosophical Retrospect: Grounding (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 121-130 The Exposition of PSP: Part I (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 131-186 The Exposition of PSP: Part II (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 187-205 Mental Causation, Persistence, and Grounding (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 207-221 The Objections to 4-Dimensionalism, PSP, and a Final Summary (Ludwig Jaskolla)....Pages 223-230 Back Matter ....Pages 231-257