Identity, Time, and Possibility

The project is to complete a series of papers on a set of interrelated problems concerning identity, time, and possibility. I shall discuss the connection between the conditions for an individual's identity over time that depend on the sort or kind of thing it is and what is possible for that individual, including the implications for this issue of competing philosophical theories of the nature of identity through time, and the question whether the existence of a (presently existing) individual at times other than the present should be thought of as analogous to its existence in possible but non-actual situations. I shall also discuss the sense in which the future is 'open' in a way in which the past is not, the connection between the idea of the future as open and the idea of the future as a realm of genuine alternative possibilities, and the relation between these conceptions of the future and other issues such as the essential properties of individuals and our conception of ourselves as free agents. The work aims to advance the debate about these controversial topics, partly by responding to recent work by other writers, and partly by building on my own previously published work, thereby contributing to the understanding of a set of issues that are of central importance in metaphysics, but about which there is no current consensus among philosophers working in the area.