Perdurantism
Perdurantism or perdurance theory is a philosophical theory of persistence and identity. The perdurantist view is that objects have distinct termporal parts as opposed to endurantism which states the whole of an individual is always present. The debate over perdurantism results from antiquity with incompatiblists such as Parmenides' and Zeno viewing that there is no such thing as change or Heraclitus who believed there was no such thing as persistence. An important part of perdurance theory is defining what is change, which perdurantists generally state is qualitative difference between distinct temporal parts. It is clear from this definition that time must be broken into discrete blocks, which is precisely what David Lewis argued for.
Notable perdurantists
- David Kellogg Lewis - Argued perdurance theory was necessary for time travel
See also
References
- Temporal parts - Stanfard Enyclopedia of Philosophy