Coincidence and identity

Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 62:151-176 (2008)
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Abstract

This paper is about a puzzle concerning the metaphysics of material objects: a puzzle generated by cases where material objects appear to coincide, sharing all their matter. As is well known, it can be illustrated by the example of a statue. In front of me now, sitting on my desk, is a statue – a statue of a lion. The statue is made of clay. So in front of me now is a piece of clay. But what is the relation between the statue and the piece of clay? Are they identical, or are they distinct?

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Penelope Mackie
Nottingham University

Citations of this work

Ordinary objects.Daniel Z. Korman - 2011 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
The Rumble in the Bundle.Benjamin L. Curtis - 2012 - Noûs 48 (2):298-313.
Persistence in Time.Damiano Costa - 2020 - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Persistence and modality.Penelope Mackie - 2018 - Synthese 198 (Suppl 6):1425-1438.

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References found in this work

Counterfactuals.David K. Lewis - 1973 - Malden, Mass.: Blackwell.
Material beings.Peter Van Inwagen - 1990 - Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Four Dimensionalism: An Ontology of Persistence and Time.Theodore Sider - 2004 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 68 (3):642-647.
Sameness and substance.David Wiggins - 1980 - Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

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