ABSTRACT

We have looked at a number of cases illustrating puzzles about persistence. Arguably those cases display a common pattern. In each one the holding of various plausible identities together with certain plausible property attributions conflicts with Leibniz’s Law. For example, in the case of the clay statue a conflict with Leibniz’s Law appears to be generated by the following identities and property attributions. At an earlier time, t1, Clay, the statue-shaped piece of clay, appears to be identical with Statue. Clay appears to be identical with Statue because at the time when they appear to be identical they share all their time-restricted properties. Moreover, some of the time-restricted properties shared by Clay and Statue seem to many to ensure their identity. Even if Clay and Statue are distinct we are happy to allow that they have the same weight, color, or size. We may be far less happy to allow that Clay and Statue, though distinct, have all and only the same parts, or have the same microphysical structure.