Dear Chris, (01)
> On Thu, Feb 09, 2006 at 09:06:33PM -0500, Barry Smith wrote:
> > sets exist timelessly
> > do you agree with that?
>
> Only when their members are also timeless. You didn't exist
> at the time
> of the Big Bang. How could your singleton {Barry} have? Sounds
> preposterous to me, unless we agree with Matthew that you had
> some sort
> of ontological status at the time qua "merely future" individual -- a
> view I find philosophically repugnant. (02)
MW: The 4D position is to say there is some way things will turn out.
So there is just one set of all rabbits that have or will ever exist.
We don't know about all the members, but then we don't know about
all the members at 08:30 11th February 2006 either. (03)
MW: Following this, the set of all rabbits that have ever existed or
will ever exist has the same members, even before there were rabbits.
Of course before there were rabbits, we are not likely to be interested
in them, but that is a different matter. (04)
Regards (05)
Matthew West
Reference Data Architecture and Standards Manager
Shell International Petroleum Company Limited
Shell Centre, London SE1 7NA, United Kingdom (06)
Tel: +44 20 7934 4490 Mobile: +44 7796 336538
Email: matthew.west@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.shell.com
http://www.matthew-west.org.uk/ (07)
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