5. What We Shall Not Presuppose

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents vii
3. Preface 1
4. 1. Introduction 17
5. 2. The Special Composition Question 21
6. 3. Contact, a Representative Answer to the Special Composition Question 33
7. 4. The General Composition Question 38
8. 5. What We Shall Not Presuppose 52
9. 6. Answers to the Special Composition Question According to Which Composition Occurs When Some Type of Physical Bonding Occurs 56
10. 7. Answers to the Special Composition Question According to Which Composition Occurs When Combinations of Various Types of Physical Bonding Occur 61
11. 8. Extreme Answers to the Special Composition Question: Nihilism and Universalism 72
12. 9. The Proposed Answer 81
13. 10. Why the Proposed Answer to the Special Composition Question, Radical Though It Is, Does Not Contradict Our Ordinary Beliefs 98
14. 11. The Topic of the Previous Section Continued: Paraphrase 108
15. 12. Unity and Thinking 115
16. 13. Artifacts 124
17. 14. The Identities of Material Objects 142
18. 15. Brain Transplants 169
19. 16. Two Problerns about Personal Identity: Memory and Commissurotomy 182
20. 17. The Problem of the Many and the Vagueness of Composition 213
21. 18. The Vagueness of Identity 228
22. 19. The Vagueness of Existence 271
23. Notes 285
24. Index 297