Description
Occasions of Identity is an exploration of timeless philosophical issues about persistence, change, time, and sameness. Andre Gallois offers a critical survey of various rival views about the nature of identity and change, and puts forward his own original theory in the face of the prevailing orthodoxy. He shows that it is coherent and helpful to suppose that things can be identical at one time. but distinct at another-in other words, that there are genuine occasional identities. Gallois defends this view against objections, demonstrates how it can solve puzzles about persistence dating back to the Ancient Greeks, and investigates the metaphysical consequences of rejecting the necessity and eternity of identities.Table of Contents: I: THE PROBLEM AND SOME SOLUTIONS; 1. Puzzle Cases; 2. Solutions to the Puzzle Cases; II: OCCASIONAL IDENTITIES; 3. Occasional Identities: A Preliminary Account; 4. Counting Amoebae; 5. Extending the Occasional Identity Thesis; 6. Defending Contingent Identities; 7. Perry and Myro on Occasional Identities; III: ALTERNATIVE ACCOUNTS; 8. Identity Strict and Loose; 9. Indeterminate Identities; 10. The Four-Dimensional World; Bibliography; Index
