THE PROBLEM OF QUALITATIVE CHANGE

Example: a piece of wire that is first straight at t and later bent at t’. Four intuitive claims about this situation:

(I) The piece of wire persists through the change.

(II) Being straight and being bent are intrinsic properties, not relational properties.

(III) It is the piece of wire itself (not just a part of it) that has the properties in question.

(IV) Being straight and being bent are incompatible properties.