Relativity theory is often said to support something called 'the four-dimensional view of reality'. But there are at least three different views that sometimes go by this name. One is 'spacetime unitism' (as we call it), according to which there is a spacetime manifold, and if there are such things as points of space or instants of time, these are just spacetime regions of different sorts: thus space and time are not separate manifolds. A second is the B-theory of time, according to which the past, present, and future are all equally real and there is nothing metaphysically special about the present. A third is perdurantism, according to which persisting material objects (rocks, trees, and human beings) are made up of different temporal parts located at different times. We sketch routes from relativity to unitism and to the B-theory. We then discuss some routes to perdurantism, via the B-theory and via unitism.104 Relativity and Three Four-dimensionalisms
This paper develops a new endurantistic theory of persistence. The theory is built around one basic tenet, which concerns the relation between objects and time, i.e. existence at a time. According to this tenet, for an object to exist at a
Traditionally, three conceptions of diachronic and diacosmic existence have been presented, that can be roughly characterized as the conjunction of a metaphysical and a semantical thesis.Endurantism: objects persist through time by being wholly present at each instant of their existence, and different descriptions of an object in time refer to the object itself.The corresponding modal conception holds that there is a relation of trans-world identity between objects.Perdurantism: objects persist through time by having temporal parts at each instant of their persistence, and different descriptions of an object in time refer to their temporal parts.The corresponding modal conception holds that different parts of the same object exist in different worlds.Exdurantism: objects do not actually persist through time, since they are momentary, i.e. existing in one and only one instant, and different descriptions refer to counterparts of such objects.The corresponding modal conception holds that different counterparts of the same object exist in different worlds.
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