Endurantism or endurance theory is a philosophical theory of persistence and identity. According to the endurantist view material objects are persisting three-dimensional individuals wholly present at every moment of their existence. This conception of an individual as always present, is opposed to perdurantism or four dimensionalism which maintains that an object is a series of temporal parts or stages, like the frames of a movie. Some philosophers argue that perdurantism better accommodates the theory of special relativity. The use of "endure" and "perdure" to distinguish two ways in which an object can be thought to persist can be traced to Lewis (1986).
See also
References
- Temporal parts entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Lewis, D.K.. 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds Oxford: Blackwell
- McKinnon, N. 2002. "The Endurance/Perdurance Distinction", The Australasian Journal of Philosophy 80:3 p. 288-306.
- Merricks, T. 1999. "Persistence, Parts and Presentism", Nous 33 p. 421-38.
- Sider, T. 2001. Four-Dimensionalism Oxford: Clarendon Press.
- Zimmerman, D. 1996. "Persistence and Presentism", Philosophical Papers 25:2.
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