What is it to be located?

The literature suggests two main answers to the question of what it is for a material object to be located at a region of spacetime. Both have a number of virtues. However, both suffer from well-known problems. According to one answer, location is a primitive relation with no informative metaphysica...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophical Studies Vol. 178; no. 9; pp. 2991 - 3010
Main Author: Leonard, Matt
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Sep2021
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=152624398&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 152624398
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00318116
        4L8
      jtl: Philosophical Studies
      issn: 00318116
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Sep2021
      vid: 178
      iid: 9
      pid: 237
      pub: Springer Nature
    artinfo:
      ui:
        152624398
        10.1007/s11098-020-01596-8
      ppf: 2991
      ppct: 19
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 388KB
      tig:
        atl: What is it to be located?
      aug:
        au: Leonard, Matt
        affil: California Baptist University, Riverside, USA
      su:
        Virtues
        Virtue
        Spacetime
        Metaphysics
        Philosophy
      sug:
        subj:
          Virtues
          Virtue
          Spacetime
          Metaphysics
          Philosophy
      ab: The literature suggests two main answers to the question of what it is for a material object to be located at a region of spacetime. Both have a number of virtues. However, both suffer from well-known problems. According to one answer, location is a primitive relation with no informative metaphysical analysis. But this makes a number of necessary truths seem mysterious and leaves them unexplained. According to the other answer, to be located at a region is just to be identical to that region. But this is inconsistent with a number of independently plausible theses about material objects and their locations. In this paper, I explore a new theory of location and argue that it has the virtues of these familiar theories but not their vices. I then explore some further connections the new theory has with some contemporary issues in metaphysics.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Philosophical Studies is a copyright of Springer, 2021. All Rights Reserved.
      item: Philosophical Studies
      holder: Springer Nature
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2021
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N