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person1920s-1983

D.C. Williams

Disciplines:
philosophy of time
metaphysics

Summary

American metaphysician who introduced the trope theory of properties and argued for a four-dimensionalist (worm) theory of persistence and a deflationary account of temporal passage.

Core Contribution

Trope theory: the basic constituents of reality are abstract particulars (tropes) — the redness of this tomato — not universal properties. The Myth of Passage: the sense of temporal flow is an illusion; the universe is a four-dimensional manifold and we mistake our position within it for motion. Influenced David Lewis's perdurantism.

Key Spikes & Highlights

  • The Myth of Passage (1951) is one of the most frequently cited philosophy papers on time — its argument that temporal flow is a systematic illusion, derived from our confusion of position with motion, remains the canonical deflationary view.

Notable Works & Achievements

The Principles of Empirical Realism

The Elements of Being

Historical Influences

Bertrand Russell Santayana

Intellectual Lineage

American Analytic Philosophy

Contemporaries & Peers

W. V. O. Quine Nelson Goodman

Minds Influenced

David Lewis Keith Campbell

Intellectual Posterity

Trope Theory Four-DimensionalismThe Myth of Passage

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