Form and Persistence
Final Report Abstract
In the project, I develop an unorthodox version of hylemorphism on the basis of considerations about persistence and persistence conditions. According to the common understanding, persistence is just existence at different times. I argue that this is false. Genuine persistence is the staying in existence of an already existing object. This has serious consequences for the nature of ordinary objects. Ordinary objects have persistence conditions. But what could this mean if persistence conditions are conditions of staying in existence? Neither can it mean to fulfil these conditions, nor can it mean to come to existence in virtue of these conditions. Hence, I argue that it means to be such that these conditions are ‘in force.’ If this is true, the challenge for an account of ordinary objects is to provide an explanation for this remarkable fact. What makes an object such that it persists, if it persists, in virtue of the fulfilment of specific conditions? To answer this question, I draw on the idea—known as hylemorphism—that objects are compounds of matter and form. Forms are commonly regarded as principles that determine the conditions of an object’s composition. Hence, they seem to be the kind of things that belong to particular objects and that have the capacity to impose certain conditions upon the world. Appealing to these characteristics, I state that objects have formal components, which I call principles of persistence, that impose the conditions of these objects’ persistence upon the future world. This, however, does not exhaust the role of forms. They must also play the role commonly assigned to them: to determine the conditions of an object’s composition or coming to existence. Consequently, I assume that the forms of objects have two aspects or elements: a principle of existence that determines the conditions of the object’s coming into existence and is not a part of the object, and the said principle of persistence that determines the conditions of the object’s persistence conditions and is a part of the object. Both elements sit on different levels. Approximately, that an object has a principle of persistence is part of the fulfilment of its principle of existence.
Publications
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Neo-Aristotelian Perspectives on Persistence and Modality, Collection of Philosophical Studies
Dirk Franken
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Against Foundationalism about Persistence-Conditions. KRITERION – Journal of Philosophy, 32(1), 1-26.
Franken, Dirk
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On Good and Bad Reasons for Endorsing Mereological Hylemorphism. Roman Ingarden and Our Times: Recent Trends in Phenomenology and Contemporary Philosophy, 133-150. Ksiegarnia Akademicka Publishing.
Franken, Dirk
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Existence and Persistence: On the Double Role of Aristotelian Forms. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Franken, Dirk
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Sortal Essentialism and What It Is to Have Persistence Conditions. SSRN Electronic Journal.
Franken, Dirk
