Material Beings

by Peter Van Inwagen

Introduction -- The special composition question -- Contact, a representative answer to the special composition question -- *The general composition question -- *What we shall not presuppose -- Answers to the special composition question according to which composition occurs when some type of physical bonding occurs -- *Answers to the special composition question according to which composition occurs when combinations of various types of physical bonding occur -- Extreme answers to the special composition question : Nihilism and Universalism -- The proposed answer -- Why the proposed answer to the special composition question, radical though it is, does not contradict our ordinary beliefs -- The topic of the previous section continued : paraphrase -- Unity and thinking -- Artifacts -- The identities of material objects -- Brain transplants -- Two problems about personal identity : memory and commissurotomy -- The problem of the many and the vagueness of composition -- The vagueness of