Showing papers in "Philosophical Books in 2002"
••
3 citations
••
TL;DR: For a long time philosophers thought material objects were unproblematic as discussed by the authors, and this illusion has now largely been dispelled, and no one can get a Ph.D. in philosophy without encountering the puzzles of the ship of Theseus, the statue and the lump, the cat and its tail complement, amoebic fission, and others.
Abstract: [First paragraph] For a long time philosophers thought material objects were unproblematic. Or nearly so. There
may have been a problem about what a material object is: a substance, a bundle of tropes, a
compound of substratum and universals, a collection of sense-data, or what have you. But once
that was settled there were supposed to be no further metaphysical problems about material
objects. This illusion has now largely been dispelled. No one can get a Ph.D. in philosophy
nowadays without encountering the puzzles of the ship of Theseus, the statue and the lump, the
cat and its tail complement', amoebic fission, and others. These problems are especially pressing
on the assumption that we ourselves are material objects.
3 citations
•
3 citations
•
2 citations
•
2 citations