Problem of change

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Philosophers who attempt to describe how an entity changes often refer to what they call the problem of change: how can something stay itself through change. In other words, how can an object change, whereby it would cease to be what it was anymore, in order to be a different item, but still remain the same through the change. More technically, the problem can be put as follows: if object S changes from one state (S*) to another (S**), S* goes out of existence and S** comes into existence.

Philosophers have two ways to describe how an item can remain itself through change: endurantism and perdurantism. Buddhist philosophers from India maintain that the problem of change indicates that an item cannot remain itself through change, and the only way change can occur is if an item goes out of existence and a new item comes into existence.

Problem of change

See also