Dear Doug, (01)
> A class such as Person, Planet, or Country arguably also has different
> members at different times. However, some philosophers (especially
> four-dimensionalists) would claim that the membership of such classes
> does not change, merely the state of existence of its members change. (02)
MW: That's not quite right. Actually, the argument is that because
individuals are spatio-temporal extents, you view them from outside time,
and that is why the membership of classes like Person does not change (which
strictly would only contain the set of whole-life Persons, otherwise you do
not get the right count, which would be of all persons who ever have, and
ever will exist). The spatio-temporal extents are considered to exist
simpliciter independent of time. You can of course also have the class
"Persons alive at 2012-05-08 21:52:00". (03)
Regards (04)
Matthew West
Information Junction
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