EBOOK Persistence and Spacetime

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        "e;wholly present"e; at all moments of time at which they exist? Or do they persist by        having distinct "e;temporal segments"e; confined to the corresponding times? Are objects        three-dimensional entities extended in space, but not in time? Or are they        four-dimensional spacetime "e;worms"e;? 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 context that broadly empirical considerations are        increasingly brought to bear on the debate about persistence.Persistence and        Spacetime pursues this empirically based approach to the questions. Yuri Balashov        begins by setting out major rival views of persistence -- endurance, perdurance, and        exdurance -- in a spacetime framework and proceeds to investigate the implications        of Einstein's theory of relativity for the debate about persistence. His overall        conclusion -- that relativistic considerations favour four-dimensionalism over        three-dimensionalism -- is hardly surprising. It is, however,anything but trivial.          Contrary to a common misconception, there is no straightforward argument from        relativity to four-dimensionalism. The issues involved are complex, and the debate        is closely entangled with a number of other philosophical disputes, including those        about the nature and ontology of time, partsand wholes, material constitution,        causation and properties, and vagueness.