Abstract:
‘No two physical objects can occupy exactly the same place at the same time’; ‘No physical object can be in two places at once’: two intuitive principles, but if they are true, what explains their truth? They do not appear just to be trivial truths. Perhaps the most satisfactory, though radical, explanation comes in the form of a thesis about the nature of space: space is a real object in its own right and what we think of as physical objects are nothing more than regions of space with certain distinctive properties. This theory is sometimes called ‘supersubstantivalism’. But, granted that this is a viable theory, how do minds and selves fit into this picture? It turns out that supersubstantivalism may have some surprising consequences for ourselves.