endurantist

Endurantist refers to a defender of endurantism, the metaphysical view that persisting objects are wholly present at every moment of their existence. In this view, objects are three‑dimensional beings that endure through time by remaining the same whole entity from one instant to the next. This stands in contrast to perdurantism, which treats objects as four‑dimensional and extended through time as a series of temporal parts or stages.

Key implications of endurantism include the idea that an object's identity across different times is maintained by its continuous, unbroken presence rather than by a succession of temporal slices. Changes in properties are explained by the properties the object possesses at each time, without invoking inherent temporal parts. The view often appeals to common‑sense intuitions: a brick or a person remains the same object from morning to night even as it undergoes change.

The position faces objections, such as questions about how to account for rapid or complex changes and how persistence interacts with relativistic physics, where simultaneity is relative. Critics argue that some forms of change may seem to require temporal parts. Proponents respond with various strategies for defining sameness across time and for handling coincidence, aiming to preserve a robust notion of persistence without temporal parts. Overall, endurantism is a central option in the debate on the metaphysics of persistence and time, alongside perdurantism and related theories.