Overlapping Individuals
An overlapping individual has a part in the actual world and a part in another world. Because identity is not problematic, we get overlapping individuals by having overlapping worlds. Two worlds overlap if they share a common part. But some properties of overlapping objects are, for Lewis, troublesome (Lewis 1986:199-210).
The problem is with an object’s accidental intrinsic properties, such as shape and weight, which supervene on its parts. Humphrey could have the property of having six fingers on his left hand. How does he do that? It can’t be true that Humphrey has both the property of having six fingers and five fingers on his left hand. What we might say is that he has five fingers at this world and six fingers at that world. But how should these modifiers be understood?
According to McDaniel (2004), if Lewis is right, the defender of overlapping individuals has to accept genuine contradictions or defend the view that every object has all its properties essentially.
How can you be one year older than you are? One way is to say that there is a possible world where you exist. Another way is for you to have a counterpart in that possible world, who has the property of being one year older than you.
Read more about this topic: Counterpart Theory, Motivations For Counterpart Theory, In Possible Worlds
Famous quotes containing the words overlapping and/or individuals:
“The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns; all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“If the individuals who compose the purest circles of aristocracy in Europe, the guarded blood of centuries, should pass in review, in such manner as that we could, at leisure, and critically inspect their behavior, we might find no gentleman, and no lady; for, although excellent specimens of courtesy and high-breeding would gratify us in the assemblage, in the particulars, we should detect offence. Because, elegance comes of no breeding, but of birth.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)