Skip to main content
Log in

The Standard Objection to the Standard Account

  • Published:
Philosophical Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

What is the relation between a clay statue andthe lump of clay from which it is made? According to the defender of the standardaccount, the statue and the lump are distinct,enduring objects that share the same spatiallocation whenever they both exist. Suchobjects also seem to share the samemicrophysical structure whenever they bothexist. This leads to the standard objection tothe standard account: if the statue and thelump of clay have the same microphysicalstructure whenever they both exist, how canthey differ in their de re temporalproperties, de re modal properties and soon? In this paper I develop amereological answer to this question – thestatue and the lump differ with respect totheir parts and this explains theirdifference with respect to de re temporalproperties, de re modal properties andthe like.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

REFERENCES

  • Baker, R. (2000): Persons and Bodies: a Constitution View, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, M. (1992): ‘Copper Statues and Pieces of Copper: A Challenge to the Standard Account’, Analysis 52, 12–17.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doepke, F. (1982): ‘Spatially Coinciding Objects’, Ratio 24, 45–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibbard, A. (1975): ‘Contingent Identity’, Journal of Philosophical Logic 4, 187–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. (1968): ‘Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic’, the Journal of Philosophy 65, 113–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. (1997): ‘Survival and Identity’, in A. Rorty (ed.), The Identities of Persons. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, D. (1986): On the Plurality of Worlds, Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markosian, N. (1994): ‘The 3D/4D Controversy and Non-Present Objects’, Philosophical Papers 23, 243–249.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mellor, D.H. (1981): Real Time, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merricks, T. (1999a): ‘Endurance, Psychological Continuity, and the Importance of Personal Identity’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59, 883–997.

    Google Scholar 

  • Merricks, T. (1999b): ‘Persistence, Parts and Presentism’, Nous 33, 421–438.

    Google Scholar 

  • Olson, E. (2001): ‘Coinciding Objects and the Indiscernibility Problem’, Philosophical Quarterly 51, 337–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rea, M. (1997): ‘Supervenience and Co-Location’, American Philosophical Quarterly 34, 367–375.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shoemaker, S. (1999): ‘Self, Body and Coincidence’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 73, 287–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sider, T. (1997): ‘Four-Dimensionalism’, the Philosophical Review 106, 197–231.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sider, T. (1999): ‘Global Supervenience and Identity across Times and Worlds’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59, 913–937.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sider, T. (2001): Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thomson, J. (1983): ‘Parthood and Identity across Time’, the Journal of Philosophy 80, 201–220.

    Google Scholar 

  • Unger, P. (1979): ‘There Are No Ordinary Things’, Synthese 41, 117–154.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Inwagen, P. (1981): ‘The Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts’, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 62, 123–137.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiggins, D. (1968): ‘On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time’, The Philosophical Review 77, 90–95.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiggins, D. (1980): Sameness and Substance, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, D. (1995): ‘Theories of Masses and Problems of Constitution’, Philosophical Review 104, 53–110.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, D. (1996): ‘Persistence and Presentism’, Philosophical Papers 25, 115–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman, D. (1998): ‘Criteria of Identity and the Identity Mystics’, Erkenntnis 48, 281–301.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Wasserman, R. The Standard Objection to the Standard Account. Philosophical Studies 111, 197–216 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021283405720

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021283405720

Keywords

Navigation