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Vol 13, No 2 (2025): Juli – December 2025

The Architecture of Persistence: A Defence of Perdurantism against the Problem of Temporary Intrinsics

OGAR, Thomas Eneji (Unknown)
Fidelis, Paalee (Unknown)
George, Aboka (Unknown)



Article Info

Publish Date
13 Oct 2025

Abstract

This paper examines the central metaphysical debate concerning how objects persist through time: endurantism versus perdurantism. Endurantism posits that objects are wholly present at each moment of their existence, enduring through time as three-dimensional entities. In contrast, perdurantism contends that objects are four-dimensional space-time worms, composed of temporal parts, with only a part present at any given time. The core of this inquiry focuses on the “Problem of Temporary Intrinsics”—how a single object can possess contradictory intrinsic properties (e.g., being bent and being straight) at different times without violating the law of non-contradiction. This paper argues that while endurantism aligns with our common-sense intuition of persistence, it fails to provide a satisfactory solution to this problem, resorting to problematic claims about property instantiation being relative to time. Conversely, perdurantism offers a more ontologically parsimonious and logically coherent solution by attributing the different properties to different temporal parts of the same space-time worm. Through a critical analysis of both theories and their responses to this fundamental puzzle, this paper concludes that perdurantism, despite its counter-intuitive nature, presents a superior framework for understanding the metaphysics of persistence and change.

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