Persistence and spacetime / Yuri Balashov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Balashov, Yuri, 1960- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Space and time.

Special relativity (Physics).

Generalized spaces.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvi, 233 pages) : illustrations

Other Title:

Persistence & spacetime

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2010.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Material objects persist through time and survive change. How do they manage to do so? What are the underlying facts of persistence? Do objects persist by being ""wholly present"" at all moments of time at which they exist? Or do they persist by having distinct ""temporal segments"" confined to the corresponding times? Are objects three-dimensional entities extended in space, but not in time? Or are they four-dimensional spacetime ""worms""? These are matters of intense debate, which isnow driven by concerns about two major issues in fundamental ontology: parthood and location. It is in this c

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.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based upon print version of record.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed Sept. 7, 2010).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-161474-2

0-19-967965-7

1-282-60067-2

9786612600678

0-19-157454-6

OCLC:

649831491