How Things Persist

by Katherine Hawley

How do things persist? Are material objects spread out through time just as they are spread out through space? Or is temporal persistence quite different from spatial extension? This key question lies at the heart of any metaphysical exploration of the material world, and it plays a crucial part in debates about personal identity and survival. Katherine Hawley explores and compares three theories of persistence -- endurance, perdurance, and stage theories -- investigating the ways in which they attempt to account for the world around us. Having provided valuable clarification of its two main rivals, she concludes by advocating stage theory.

Such a basic issue about the nature of the physical world naturally has close ties with other central philosophical problems -- How Things Persist includes discussions of change and parthood, of how we refer to material objects at different times, of the doctrine of Humean Supervenience, and of the modal features of material things. In particular, it contains new accounts of the nature of worldly vagueness, and of what binds material things together over time, distinguishing the career of a natural object from an arbitrary sequence of events. Each chapter concludes with a reflection about the impact of these metaphysical debates upon questions about our personal identity and survival.

Both students and professional philosophers will find that this wide-ranging study provides ideal access to the lively modern debate about an ancient metaphysical problem.

Genres: Philosophy, Metaphysics

221 pages, Hardcover

First published February 21, 2002

About the author

Katherine Hawley grew up in Stoke-on-Trent, studied Physics and Philosophy at Balliol College, Oxford, spent a few inarticulate months living in France, then moved to Cambridge, where she took an M.Phil. and subsequently a Ph.D. in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science (working with Peter Lipton). She was Henry Sidgwick Research Fellow of Newnham College, Cambridge, before taking up a lectureship at St Andrews in 1999. Hawley had two children who were born in 2004.

Professor Hawley was known for her philosophical work on trust, various questions in metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science, and other topics such as impostor syndrome and creativity.

Her work in public philosophy included interviews, radio and podcast appearances, government consulting, and a long-running column in Psychology Today.

She died of cancer.

Reviews

[Evaggelia Nikolaou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book, as I have exams next week in Metaphysics. We'll, I'm really satisfied with the explanatory part, I don't regret the 23 hours I've spent to read and comprehend it. The first 100 pages are quite difficult but this is not only because I was trying to familiarize with Endurance, perdurance and Stage theory, but because Kathrine mentions arbitrary things from the other side of metaphysics and from physics, such as universals, tensed and tenseless theories of time and so on, just for the sake of referring to them without actually benefit the essence of the book. Though, I presume that everybody would fall in this satisfactory trap. I was trying to make sense of them in relation with Persistence but after all, indeed you need much studying to have a general picture of metaphysics other than superficial analysis of terms, even of physics (quantum physics and theories of relativity as well). The other half of the book was quite cohesive, with better structure and essential, focused arguments. I certainly understood many things, from the beginning. I wouldn't suggest to anyone to read it for fun, though If someone is interested I would suggest reading 10 pages per day, so to have time to digest the material. Such books demand several years of studying - a lot of work - (I consider them to want much more work than an arbitrary scientific). This was certainly a focused and well - developed book.

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote my thesis on the application of persistence theories as presented by Hawley to Plotinus' metaphysical worldview.

This book is tough and very much academic, but thoroughly interesting if you can stay focused.

[SAURABH GUPTA · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Philosophy of Science Today" by Peter Clark provides a contemporary exploration of the philosophy of science. Clark skillfully navigates complex philosophical questions, offering a fresh perspective on the evolving nature of scientific inquiry. This book is a valuable resource for those interested in the intersection of philosophy and scientific thought.