Philosophers Index Abstract
- Before us lies a copper statue. In the same place, presumably, there is a piece of copper. What is the relationship between the statue and the piece of copper?
- The most popular account of such cases is one on which the statue and the piece of copper are numerically different objects even though they consist of just the same matter and are wholly present in just the same place.
- I argue that this account must be rejected. Elsewhere I offer a novel alternative.
Notes
- See my Note on The Statue and the Clay1.
- This paper is cited - and its argument rejected - in "Baker (Lynne Rudder) - Materialism with a Human Face" (Section IV: Replies to Some Objections2).
- I assume Burke's 'novel alternative' is described in "Burke (Michael) - Preserving the Principle of One Object to a Place: A Novel Account of the Relations Amongst Objects, Sorts, Sortals, and Persistence Conditions", published in 1994.
- I’ve now come to – what seems to me to be – the realisation that – just as a Person3 is a phase sortal4 of a human animal – so a statue is a phase sortal of whatever lump it is made of. I’ll be interested to see – in his later paper – whether Burke comes to the same conclusion.
- So, I’m less excited by this paper than I was. However, the author provides some useful background – as of 1992 – the state of play about coincident objects, and who believed what. This is too early to engage either with Baker5 or Olson6.
- Burke’s Reference List is useful:-
- "Adams (Robert Merrihew) - Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity"
- "Chappell (Vere) - Locke on the Ontology of Matter, Living Things and Persons"
- "Doepke (Frederick) - Spatially Coinciding Objects"
- "Forbes (Graeme) - Is There a Problem About Persistence?"
- "Hirsch (Eli) - The Concept of Identity"
- "Kripke (Saul) - Identity and Necessity"
- "Laycock (H.) - Some Questions of Ontology",
- "Lewis (David) - On the Plurality of Worlds"
- "Lowe (E.J.) - Instantiation, Identity and Constitution"
- "Noonan (Harold) - Reply to Lowe on Ships and Structures"
- John L. Pollock, Knowledge and Justification
- "Salmon (Nathan) - Reference and Essence"
- "Shorter (J.M.) - On Coinciding in Space and Time"
- "Simons (Peter) - Parts: A Study in Ontology"
- "Thomson (Judith Jarvis) - Parthood and Identity Across Time"
- "Van Inwagen (Peter) - The Doctrine of Arbitrary Undetached Parts"
- "Wiggins (David) - Identity & Spatio-temporal Continuity"
- "Wiggins (David) - Sameness and Substance"
Comment:
Text Colour Conventions (see disclaimer)
- Blue: Text by me; © Theo Todman, 2025
- Mauve: Text by correspondent(s) or other author(s); © the author(s)