Persistence and Spacetime

Product description Review "Discussions of persistence have tended to presume a prerelativistic conception of space and time, but it has become increasingly clear that this just won't do. Persistence and Spacetime is a wonderful example of how metaphysics and physics can combine forces to teach us the nature of spacetime and its denizens."--Ted Sider, Cornell University"Balashov offers a powerful and sophisticated set of arguments from relativistic physics to a four-dimensionalist metaphysics of persisting objects. The book is extremely lucid, fair, and original throughout. It also contains an exceptionally clear and reader-friendly introduction to the relevant chunks of physics, so new-comers to relativity theory should find it accessible and engaging. Anyone with an interest in the metaphysics of material objects must come to terms with Balashov's arguments. Persistence and Spacetime is likely to be a major source of ideas and fruitful debate for many years to come."--Cody Gilmore, University of California, Davis"A very useful and engaging contribution to the literature on persistence. The whole book amply repays the effort the reader invests in thinking through the issues it deals with... I believe that anyone who is interested in the debate over persistence -- perdurantist and endurantist alike - will find this book an important contribution, and that Balashov has done us a great service by so clearly and forcefully putting the case for the potential significance of modern physics for formulating and articulating that debate. I certainly hope the book will be widely read; Balashov's engagement with both physics and metaphysics provides a model for how ontological enquiry ought to proceed."--Antony Eagle, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews"Balashov's study is a great source of insights into the relation among science, common sense and philosophy... Persistence and Spacetime casts new light on an old subject... Balashov has set the agenda of the persistence debate."--Lorenzo del Savio, Humana Mente Book Description An illuminating exploration of a wide range of metaphysical issues About the Author Yuri Balashov is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Georgia. His current interests are in analytic ontology and philosophy of time. He has published extensively in major philosophy journals, such as Nous, Philosophical Studies, American Philosophical Quarterly, Australasian Journal of Philosophy, Philosophical Quarterly, The Monist, and British Journal for the Philosophy of Science and is a co-editor of Einstein Studies in Russia (Birkhauser, 2002) and Philosophy of Science: Contemporary Readings (Routledge, 2002). Read more