On Jan 23, 2011, at 5:10 AM, Matthew West wrote:  (01)
> Dear Pat,
>
> This could be misinterpreted.
>
>>> A 4D object, in this context, is an object that can have different
>>> state at different times.
>> 
>> No, that is a continuant. In a very strict 4D model, there is no single
>> 'thing' that has the various states. (Although I hasten to add, it is very
>> convenient to be somewhat less strict than this. I mean only to make the
>> conceptual distinction.)
>
> MW: As you know, there are two versions of 4D, one of which, stage theory,
> only admits timeslices with infinitesimal temporal thickness called stages
> which can be strung together, the other, perdurantism, allows objects to be
> extended in time as well as space, and that one spatio-temporal extent can
> be a part of another.  (02) 
Yes. Stage theory is the 'very strict' version I was referring to.  (03)
> 
> MW: The ambiguity comes from "there is no single 'thing' that has the
> various states".
>
> MW: This is true if one is talking about stage theory - there are only the
> various stages. However, it is not true for perdurantism, provided one
> interprets "has" as meaning "has temporal parts".  (04) 
But I still think that this is a misleading way to express the intuition. In 
4-D perdurantism, there really is nothing that has different *states*. An 
enduring object which retains its identity through time and whose properties 
change with time is a continuant, and continuants are incoherent in a 4-D 
universe. Put another way, a temporal part is not a state.  (05)
But I am no doubt splitting hairs at this point.  (06)
Pat  (07)
> 
> Regards
>
> Matthew West 
> Information Junction
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