Issues about life and death seem intertwined with issues about persistence and time: we live as long as we persist through time, and our deaths seem to mark the limits of our persistence. Metaphysicians have thought deeply about the nature of time, and about what it is for things in general to persi...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.422.8840 http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~kjh5/OnlinePapers/PersistenceAndTime.pdf |
| Summary: | Issues about life and death seem intertwined with issues about persistence and time: we live as long as we persist through time, and our deaths seem to mark the limits of our persistence. Metaphysicians have thought deeply about the nature of time, and about what it is for things in general to persist though time. In this chapter I outline some metaphysical views about time, and about persistence, and discuss how they can help us clarify our thinking about life and death. 1. Time and Existence To understand time, let’s start with space. Think of something which is not here, in the place where you are reading this chapter; for example Halley Research Station in Antarctica. Does Halley Research Station exist? It can be difficult for us to find out what exists far away, but we accept that many things do exist far away. From an ontological point of view, every spatial location is on a par with every other: things in all those places are real. Far-away things exist although they do not exist here. Let’s turn to possibilities. Think of something which is not actual; for example the 2010 Olympic Games held in Timbuktu, Mali. Do these Olympics exist? Well, no. |
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