Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T18:37:53.845Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Travelling in Time: How to Wholly Exist in Two Places at the Same Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Kristie Miller
Kristie Miller*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

It is possible to wholly exist at multiple spatial locations at the same time. At least, if time travel is possible and objects endure, then such must be the case. To accommodate this possibility requires the introduction of a spatial analog of either relativising properties to times — relativising properties to spatial locations — or of relativising the manner of instantiation to times — relativising the manner of instantiation to spatial locations. It has been suggested, however, that introducing irreducibly spatially relativised or spatially adverbialised properties presents some difficulties for the endurantist. I will consider an objection according to which embracing such spatially relativised properties could lead us to reject mereology altogether in favour of a metaphysics according to which objects are wholly present at every space-time point at which they exist. I argue that although such a view is coherent, there are some good reasons to reject it. Moreover, I argue that the endurantist can introduce spatially relativised or adverbialised properties without conceding that objects lack spatial parts. Such a strategy has the additional advantage that it allows the endurantist not only to explain time travel, but also to reconcile our competing intuitions about cases of fission.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 2006 , pp. 309 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, L.R. 2000. Persons and Bodies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, L.R. 1997. ‘Why Constitution is not Identity.’ Journal of Philosophy 94: 599–621.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balashov, Y. 2000. ‘Persistence and Space-time: Philosophical Lessons of the Pole and Barn.’ The Monist 83(3): 321-40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balashov, Y. 1999. ‘Relativistic Objects.’ Nous 33(4): 644-62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chambers, T. 1999. ‘Time travel: How not to Defuse the Principal Paradox.’ Ratio 12(3): 296–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doepke, F. 1982. ‘Spatially Coinciding Objects.’ Ratio 24: 45–60.Google Scholar
Grey, W. 1999. ‘Troubles with Time Travel.’ Philosophy 74: 55–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haslanger, S. 1989. ‘Endurance and Temporary Intrinsics.’ Analysis 49: 119-25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hales, S.D. and T.A., Johnson. 2003. ‘Endurantism, Perdurantism and Special Relativity’ The Philosophical Quarterly 53: 524-39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heller, M. 1990. The Ontology of Physical Objects: Four-dimensional Hunks of Matter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horwich, P. 1975. ‘On Some Alleged Paradoxes of Time Travel.’ Journal of Philosophy 72: 432-44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, M. 1992. ‘Constitution Is Not Identity.’ Mind 101: 89–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, M. 1987. ‘Is There a Problem about Persistence?’ The Aristotelian Society Supp 61: 107-35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, D. 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds. New York: Blackwell Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1983. ‘Survival and Identity,’ in Philosophical Papers Vol I Oxford: Oxford University Press, 55–77.Google Scholar
Lewis, D. 1976. ‘The Paradoxes of Time Travel.’ American Philosophical Quarterly 13:145-52.Google Scholar
Lowe, E.J. 1988. ‘The Problems of Intrinsic Change: Rejoinder to Lewis.’ Analysis 48: 72-7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, K. 2004. ‘The Metaphysical Equivalence of Three and Four Dimensionalism’ Erkenntnis 62(1): 91–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merricks, T. 1999. ‘Persistence, Parts and Presentism.’ Nous 33(3): 421-38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parfit, D. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Parsons, J. 2000. ‘Must a Four-dimensionalist Believe in Temporal Parts?’ The Monist 83(3): 399–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, D. 1985. ‘Can Amoebae Divide without Multiplying?’ Australasian Journal of Philosophy 63: 299–319.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, T. 2002. ‘Time Travel, Coincidences and Counterfactuals.’ Philosophical Studies 110: 115-38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sider, T. 2002. ‘Review of Lynne Rudder Baker's Persons and Bodies.’ The Journal of Philosophy 99: 45–8.Google Scholar
Sider, T. 2001. Four-Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomson, J.J. 1998. ‘The Statue and the Clay.’ Nous 32: 149-73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Inwagen, P. 1990. ‘Four-Dimensional Objects.’ Nous 24: 245-55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiggins, D. 1968. ‘On Being in the Same Place at the Same Time.’ Philosophical Review 77: 90-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zimmerman, D. 1996. ‘Persistence and Presentism.’ Philosophical Papers 25: 115-26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar