On Aug 6, 2009, at 2:57 PM, Chris Partridge wrote: (01)
> Hi John,
>
> Can you clarify a few things.
>
>>
>> The assumption of property instances is orthogonal to the
>> assumption of a 4-D ontology.
>
> How do you arrive at this conclusion? It does not seem obvious to me. (02)
Seems obvious to me. How do you see them as being related? (03)
>
>> In other discussions, you have consistently argued for an ontology
>> that is strictly extensional. That is also an assumption that is
>> orthogonal to the 3-D vs. 4-D viewpoint.
>>
>
> Are you sure orthogonal is the right word here?
> As far as I can tell (and others say the same) the views are
> interestingly
> intertwined. So, for example, it is rather difficult to be an
> extensionalist
> and not be 4D. Orthogonal seems to imply that there is no kind of
> dependence
> between the two. (04)
Indeed; and there is not. Of course it is possible to be a 3-d
extensionalist. You believe in continuants, and you say that two
continuants which share the same 3-d extension at every point of their
common life, are identical. To be a 4-d nonextensionalist is also
easy, I am one myself. I believe there is a clear distinction between
a plastic molded object, such as the 5-cent buddha on my desk, and the
plastic from which it is composed, even though they share exactly the
same 4-D extent (the plastic having itself formed by catalysis during
the molding process). (05)
I am puzzled as to how to even manage to see any relationship between
the two topics (3 vs 4-D and extensionalism vs. not) (06)
Pat H. (07)
>
> Of course, it is useful to map the finer landscape of dependencies -
> but I
> would have thought extensional 4D is reasonably fined grained,
> unless one
> has quite a lot of spare time. However, if the finer grained
> classification
> opens up interesting possibilities, then that is quite a different
> matter.
>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
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>
>
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> (08)
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