Persistence and internal times

Here are some desiderata for a view of the persistence of objects:

1. Ordinary objects can change with respect to intrinsic properties.

2. Ordinary objects are the primary bearers of some of the changeable intrinsic properties.

3. Ordinary objects are literally present at multiple times.

Endurantism is usually allied with some sort of view on which temporary properties are had in relation to times, and hence the temporary properties are relational and not intrinsic. Perdurantism violates 2: it is the stages, not the ordinary objects, that are the primary bearers of the temporary intrinsics. And no primary bearer of a property can change with respect to it. Exdurantism violates 3: ordinary objects only exist at a single time.

Here is a view that yields all three desiderata. Objects have internal times, and these internal times are literally parts of the objects. Changeable intrinsic properties are relational to the internal times: an object is, say, straight at internal time t₁ and bent at internal time t₂.

Let’s go through the desiderata. The internal times are parts of the object, and a property obtaining in virtue of relations between one’s own parts can still be intrinsic. Shape, for instance, might be had in virtue of the spatial relationships between the parts of an object—and yet this does not rule out shape being intrinsic (indeed, for David Lewis it’s paradigmatically intrinsic). Similarly, consciousness properties in a split brain might be had relationally to a brain hemisphere, but are still intrinsic since brain hemispheres are parts of the patient. Thus we can have (1).

Moreover, while parts—namely, internal times—are used to account for change, the parts are not the primary bearers of the changeable intrinsic properties. The changeable intrinsic properties to be relational between the ordinary object and the times, but that does nothing to rule out the possibility that some of these properties are primarily had by the object as a whole.

Ordinary objects can be literally present at multiple times. One can ensure this either in an endurantist way, so that the ordinary objects are multiply temporally located 3D objects, or in a four-dimensionalist way, so that the ordinary objects are 4D. Note that the endurantist version may require the ordinary object to have parts—namely, the internal times—that do not themselves endure but that only exist for an external instant. But there is no problem with an enduring object having a short-lived part.

There is another variant of the view. The internal times could be taken to be abstract objects instead of parts of the ordinary object. Arguably, a property that is had in virtue of a relation to an abstract object is not thereby objectionably extrinsic. If it were, then strong Platonists would all count as denying the existence of intrinsic properties.