The Metaphysics of permanence and change

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Consul
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Joined: February 21st, 2014, 6:32 am
Location: Germany

Re: The Metaphysics of permanence and change

Post by Consul »

Consul wrote: October 27th, 2021, 2:37 pm QUOTE>
"In sum, we so far have three views of persistence to consider:

Perdurance theory. Objects persist only perduring. There are perduring, but no enduring or exduring, particulars.

Exdurance theory (aka stage theory). Ordinary objects persist by exduring. There are (weird) perduring particulars, and no enduring particulars.

Endurance theory. Ordinary objects persist by enduring. There are enduring particulars, and there may or may not be perduring or exduring particulars as well."

(Haslanger, Sally. "Persistence through Time." In The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics, edited by Michael J. Loux and Dean W. Zimmerman, 315-354. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. p. 319)
<QUOTE
How can these theories consistently explain the change of accidental properties over time?

1. Perdurantism: If x is Y at t1 and ~Y at t2, then the contradiction Y & ~Y is avoided as follows: It is not x as a whole which is both Y and ~Y, because there is a temporal part x1 of x which is Y, and another temporal part x2 of x which is ~Y, with x1 ≠ x2; so there is no contradiction: x1 is Y and x2 is ~Y.

2. Endurantism: If x is Y at t1 and ~Y at t2, then the contradiction Y & ~Y is avoided as follows: It is x as a whole which is Y and ~Y; but, assuming the A-theory of time, x was Y at t1 and is ~Y at t2. So there is no contradiction, because x's having been Y and (now) being ~Y is different from x's (now) being Y and (now) being ~Y.

3. Exdurantism: If x is Y at t1 and ~Y at t2, then the contradiction Y & ~Y is avoided as follows: x as a whole is Y at t1, and a (numerically different) counterpart of x, cx, is as a whole ~Y at t2. So there is not contradiction, because x ≠ cx.
"We may philosophize well or ill, but we must philosophize." – Wilfrid Sellars
PoeticUniverse
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Joined: April 4th, 2015, 7:25 pm

Re: The Metaphysics of permanence and change

Post by PoeticUniverse »

3017Metaphysician wrote: October 27th, 2021, 2:50 pm the rules of frequency
Change, change, change… constant change, as fast as it
Can happen, the speed of light being foremost
The speed of causality, over 13 billion years,
From the simple on up to the more complex.
stevie
Posts: 762
Joined: July 19th, 2021, 11:08 am

Re: The Metaphysics of permanence and change

Post by stevie »

3017Metaphysician wrote: October 25th, 2021, 11:51 am ... And finally, can we explain reality and cognition itself, logically and consistently without paradox or contradiction?
I don't think so because ordinary cognition and the felt reality it entails do not stand logical scrutiny. E.g. saying "X changes [every moment]" should refer to a process but if "X changes [every moment]" then there can't be a persistent X which could be said to change [every moment].
mankind ... must act and reason and believe; though they are not able, by their most diligent enquiry, to satisfy themselves concerning the foundation of these operations, or to remove the objections, which may be raised against them [Hume]
PoeticUniverse
Posts: 638
Joined: April 4th, 2015, 7:25 pm

Re: The Metaphysics of permanence and change

Post by PoeticUniverse »

The Permanent cannot change into something different than itself, thus the temporaries that become of it are still it, and then they go on to combine, as the lessor ever goes on to form the greater which can easily outdo the interestingness of the Permanent that is the simplest, as we see in the progression of the universe's complexity; however, the price seems to be that the wonderful and glorious temporaries must perish eventually and dissolve their forms back into the substructure of the Permanent.

The Permanent and Its Temporaries
&
Unity in Multiplicity
&
The One and the Many
&
Change and the Changeless
&
Especially
The Constant Demise of the Mutables


(Inspired by Shelley and his style)

Weep for the temporaries; they all fade,
Those transient bubbles blown and burst
Through their brief lives, of the Permanent made.
Oh, weep for the ephemeral dispersed,
Sad hours all, throughout the months and years,
To mourn their steady loss with flowing tears;
Teach them o’er the morrows thine own sorrow
For the yesterdays they could only borrow
From the One’s everlasting simplicity.
Oh, weep for the unsteady, born to flee!

For now, their light echoes and lights the path
Continued that they added to, onto more
Evanescences walking Time’s footpath,
Til Past has been forgotten by Future.
Oh, limited Mother, their tales best
Thine by far e’en in their impermanence,
But Thou can’t save them from their final rest,
For they are chained to time’s changing tense.
Thou cannot rekindle their faded breath,
Those melodies that hid coming death.
Like the flowers that mock the corpse beneath,
The Enduring cloaks their extinguished wreath.

With veiled eyes, newer moments weep dispair,
While spreading forth their own emergences;
Dream not that the Eternal Deep can their air
Restore, for the makeshift must progress, spent.
The universe has to continue its race,
Unwinding, like a spring, at time’s fixed pace,
In which star-generations are born and perish,
Giving their lives for all we can cherish.
Energy’s Hunger stalks all creatures made,
Lying ever just ‘round the corner in the shade.

Death takes both humans and the beetle as one,
After their lives are spent from rolling some dung.
Living clouds wane, having outwept their rain;
The pale inconstants must e’er pass their reign.
Like mist’s pageantry on an autumnal night,
As a slowing pomp, all events made light
Decay: Desires, Adorations, Destinies,
Glooms, Splendours, Sighs, Hopes, Fears, and Phantasies.
Pleasure hails, blinded by tears and sorrow:
“You took from Death all that Life could borrow.”

Like our shades dance the walls of Plato’s cave,
We’re 3D shadows of 4D’s enclave…
It’s like a lamp lights up a paper shade—
We are as figures thereupon portrayed.
We are magic lanterns shining here; 
Our spirits are the lights in there.
We’re the One’s Candled Magic Shadow-show,
In which we Phantom Figures come and go.
Come, light your lantern and mine with good cheer;
We’re magic lamps; our spirits dance in here.

We are phenomena’s projected face,
Well-painted from noumena’s unseen base.
From what bright star came the gleam in your eyes? 
From what distant sun came your smile, light-wise?
Our minds and senses interpret and dispense
The base reality into the colors and sensations
Of the phenomenal world from the noumenal;
We may become either rainbows or ugly stains!
Our beginnings and ends are of nowhere,
So, let’s radiate, since for now we’re here!

Ending by Shelley himself:

The One remains, the many change and pass;
Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth’s shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many-colour’d glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments.—Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!
Follow where all is fled!—Rome’s azure sky,
Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words, are weak
The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak.
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