Persistence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristie Miller
Keyword(s):  
David Lewis ◽  
Stage Theory ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Time Section ◽  
Temporary Intrinsics ◽  
Over Time

We call the phenomenon of objects existing through time, persistence. Theories of persistence aim to spell out the conditions under which objects persist. A useful way to think about this task is to see that in order for an object to persist from one time to another, it needs to be that in some good sense the object that is located at the earlier time, is the same object as the object located at the later time. Competing theories of persistence can be thought of as offering different ways of understanding the sense in which an object located at one time is the same object as an object located at some other time. These different accounts are, in part, motivated by the need to reconcile four apparent truisms: (a) an object persists iff it exists at different times, and at each of those times what exists is numerically identical with what exists at every other one of those times; (b) persisting objects change their intrinsic properties over time; (c) x = y only if x and y share all of the same properties; and (d) no object instantiates incompatible properties. The tension between these four plausible claims is known as the problem of temporary intrinsics, and different attempts to solve the problem lead to different theories of persistence. Historically, there have been two main theories of persistence. The articulation of these theories can be traced to David Lewis, who distinguishes endurance from perdurance. The theory that says that objects persist by enduring is known as endurantism, and the theory that says that objects persist by perduring is known as perdurantism. Put somewhat roughly for now, endurantism is the view that objects persist by being wholly present at more than one time. Perdurantism is the view that objects persist by being partially present at more than one time. Section 1 considers these two theories of persistence in more detail, and then introduces two more recent views: exdurantism (also known as stage theory) and transdurantism. Section 2 considers how these four theories respond to the problem of temporary intrinsics.

Desire and Feeling

2021 ◽  
pp. 130-147
Author(s):  
Alex Gregory
Keyword(s):  
Good Sense ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

This chapter explores the relationship between desires and feelings such as pleasure and emotion. It explains how emotions bear on our desires in a manner that is consistent with desire-as-belief – our emotions affect our desires largely by directing our attention onto the reasons we have. It then discusses the influence of appetites and pleasure on desire – these things affect our desires because they affect the reasons we have. Moreover, the chapter argues that by understanding appetites and likings as distinct states from desires, desire-as-belief can make good sense of apparently non-rational variation in desire between people, and over time. The chapter goes on to explain how desire-as-belief can make good sense of ascetics who believe that they have no reasons to pursue pleasure. Finally, the chapter addresses the role that desires play in producing pleasure.

Gender Differences in Complicated Grief among the Elderly

1996 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Bierhals ◽  
Holly G. Prigerson ◽  
Amy Fasiczka ◽  
Ellen Frank ◽  
Mark Miller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Analysis Of Variance ◽  
Complicated Grief ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Stage Theory ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Temporal Course ◽  
Over Time

The resolution of grief has been frequently posited to progress through stages. Seventy-one widows and twenty-six widowers bereaved from five months to thirty-seven years were studied to determine if their resolution of grief-related symptoms could be mapped onto a stage theory of grief and to examine if men and women follow the same temporal course. An analysis of variance was used to test for differences in complicated grief symptoms over time and between widows and widowers. Widowers bereaved three years or longer were found to have increased bitterness. By contrast, widows who were bereaved three years and beyond were found to have lower levels of complicated grief. These preliminary findings suggest that grief may not resolve in stages and that symptoms of complicated grief may not decline significantly over time. Rather symptoms of complicated grief appear to remain stable at least for the first three years of bereavement for both men and women but, thereafter, among widowers tend to increase and among widows to decrease.

International Law and the Death Penalty

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra L. Babcock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
International Law ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
The United States ◽  
International Norms ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Vienna Convention ◽  
Time Section ◽  
Over Time

Section I of this chapter examines the potential of international law to promote abolition of the death penalty and the challenges that prevent the full realization of that potential. Section II provides a brief overview of how international norms relating to the application of the death penalty have evolved over time. Section III provides three examples of how their impact has been limited in practice, focusing on the application of the death penalty to individuals with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities, as well as the failure of the United States to comply with its obligations under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Finally, Section IV suggests a number of prescriptive measures to address these limitations. It describes an innovative project in Malawi to obtain the resentencing of prisoners condemned to death and discusses potential revisions to the Safeguards Guaranteeing Protection of the Rights of Those Facing the Death Penalty.

scholarly journals Reticulocytes II: Reexamination of the in vivo survival of stress reticulocytes

Blood ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 75 (9) ◽  
pp. 1877-1882 ◽  
Author(s):  
NA Noble ◽  
QP Xu ◽  
LL Hoge
Keyword(s):  
Cell Division ◽  
Terminal Cell ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Over Time

Abstract Very young reticulocytes are released into the circulation in response to the stress of anemia. These stress reticulocytes have shortened in vivo survival when transfused into normal recipients, and are generally considered to be abnormal because they have skipped a terminal cell division. We reevaluated one aspect of their abnormality: that of in vivo survival. Using methodology that accounted for all cells transfused, in vivo survival of both normal and stress reticulocytes was investigated in both normal and anemic recipients. The experiments demonstrate that: (1) survival of reticulocytes is normal only when normal reticulocytes are injected into nonanemic animals; (2) intrinsic properties of stress reticulocytes lead to their immediate removal from the circulation by normal recipients to a significantly greater extent than by anemic recipients; and (3) both stress and normal reticulocytes are removed at an accelerated rate over time by anemic recipients. Taken together, the data indicate that in the course of becoming anemic, an adaptation occurs that allows cells produced during anemia to circulate considerably longer in anemic animals than they could in normal nonanemic animals. Other studies disclosed that increased reticulocyte survival in anemic animals could not be attributed to reticuloendothelial overload, but is induced by adaptation of the spleen, decreasing its removal of stress reticulocytes.

scholarly journals Modal logic and logic of fiction

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Vladimir Nocic ◽  
Jasmina Nocic
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Saul Kripke ◽  
Possible Worlds Semantics ◽  
Nicholas Rescher ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Possible Worlds Theory ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Transworld Identity

This paper analyzes the views of representative theoreticians of possible worlds semantics and possible worlds theory in an attempt to ascertain the degree and manner of interdisciplinary borrowing through focusing on possible worlds and individuals in those worlds. The paper first clarifies the general perceptions of possible worlds, perceptions in the field of modal restrictions, transworld identity, and identity over time, as presented in the works of Saul Kripke, David Lewis, and Nicholas Rescher, the representative semanticists of possible worlds, and then ascertains the degree and manner of their adaptations in the theory proposed by Ljubomir Dolezel within literary theory. The conclusion is that the cooperation between the two disciplines stands on fertile ground but that it is necessary to perform more systematic adaptations due to different subjects of research and different objectives.

Study of Collagen Hydrogel Biodegradability Over Time

2018 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel A. Zainescu ◽  
Luminita Albu ◽  
Rodica Roxana Constantinescu
Keyword(s):  
Biological Material ◽  
Food Industry ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
Collagen Structure ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collagen Hydrogel ◽  
Proteolytic Bacteria ◽  
Collagenous Structure ◽  
Over Time

Hydrogels have drawn the interest of researchers over the past decade, due to their intrinsic properties for applications in medicine, agriculture [1,2], food industry, pharmaceuticals, environmental protection and biomaterials, etc. Obtaining hydrogels with collagen structure by hydrolyzing pelt waste and using them for applications in agriculture is a novelty, considering that the collagen structure is currently used only in medicine. The paper presents an experimental model for obtaining hydrogels with collagenous structure from pelt waste resulting from the liming process. As a biological material, the hydrogel with collagen structure is a complex medium, optimal for the development of a variety of biodeteriogenic organisms due to a considerable amount of protein as well as the presence of lipids and carbohydrates that provide an excellent nutrient substrate for many biological species. During the phase of incorporation into the soil of the collagen hydrogel, proteolytic bacteria develop particularly, stimulated by humidity and possibly by temperature, thus producing biodegradation.The paper presents the methodology for studying the biodegradability of collagen hydrogel with encapsulated nutrients.

Modeling a Perspective on the World

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Robert C. Stalnaker
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Cognitive State ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time

It is argued, following David Lewis, that we should model a cognitive state by a set of centered possible worlds, since this is required to represent the believer’s self-locating or indexical knowledge and belief. But it is also argued, contra Lewis, that we should take the contents of belief to be propositions, represented by sets of uncentered possible worlds, since this is required to give a perspicuous account of agreement and disagreement of different agents, and of change of belief over time. Reconciling these two thoughts requires a defense of Propositionality: roughly, the thesis that any ignorance of where one is in the world is also ignorance about what the world in itself is like. This thesis is defended against some criticisms, and motivated by an externalist picture of knowledge and intentionality.

Reply to Cameron

2009 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAUL SHEEHY
Keyword(s):  
David Lewis ◽  
Abstract Entity ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Modal Realism ◽  
Divine Nature

AbstractRoss Cameron has argued that the modal realism of David Lewis furnishes the theist with the resources to explain divine necessity. Cameron is successful in identifying two theistic strategies, but neither is attractive in light of a commitment to modal realism. The first theistic strategy is to treat God as an abstract entity in the same way that the modal realist treats pure sets. This is undermotivated in light of the nominalistic spirit of modal realism. The second strategy is to regard God as enjoying trans-world identity because the divine nature can possess no accidental intrinsic properties. This approach raises a problem of how one is to understand the notion of actuality.

Classical theism and modal realism are incompatible

2016 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 561-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHAD VANCE
Keyword(s):  
Actual World ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Counterpart Theory ◽  
Possible Worlds Semantics ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Modal Realism ◽  
Possible World ◽  
Necessary Being ◽  
Special Case

AbstractThe classical conception of God is that of a necessary being. On a possible worlds semantics, this entails that God exists at every possible world. According to the modal realist account of David Lewis, possible worlds are understood to be real, concrete worlds – no different in kind from the actual world. But, modal realism is equipped to accommodate the existence of a necessary being in only one of three ways: (1) By way of counterpart theory, or (2) by way of a special case of trans-world identity for causally inert necessary beings (e.g. pure sets), or else (3) causally potent ones which lack accidental intrinsic properties. I argue that each of these three options entails unacceptable consequences – (1) and (2) are incompatible with theism, and (3) is incompatible with modal realism. I conclude that (at least) one of these views is false.

Why Defend Humean Supervenience?

2020 ◽  
Vol 117 (7) ◽  
pp. 387-406
Author(s):  
Siegfried Jaag Siegfried Jaag ◽  
Christian Loew Christian Loew ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Level Structure ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Physical Reality ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Humean Supervenience ◽  
Intrinsic Properties ◽  
Fundamental Physics ◽  
Reductive Physicalism ◽  
In Virtue Of ◽  
Fundamental Physical

Humean Supervenience (HS) is a metaphysical model of the world according to which all truths hold in virtue of nothing but the total spatiotemporal distribution of perfectly natural, intrinsic properties. David Lewis and others have worked out many aspects of HS in great detail. A larger motivational question, however, remains unanswered: As Lewis admits, there is strong evidence from fundamental physics that HS is false. What then is the purpose of defending HS? In this paper, we argue that the philosophical merit of HS is largely independent of whether it correctly represents the world’s fundamental structure. In particular, we show that insofar as HS is an apt model of the world’s higher-level structure, it thereby provides a powerful argument for reductive physicalism and explains otherwise opaque inferential relations. Recent criticism of HS on the grounds that it misrepresents fundamental physical reality is, therefore, beside the point.

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