Nation: its ontology and identity
dc.contributor.advisor
Pickel, Bryan
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dc.contributor.author
Cheng, Michael
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dc.date.accessioned
2019-07-02T09:35:53Z
dc.date.available
2019-07-02T09:35:53Z
dc.date.issued
2018
dc.description.abstract
This project investigates the ontology and identity of nations. Drawing from the thought experiment “The ship of Theseus” and some recent literatures on group metaphysics, I explore the domain of nations. There are two major enquiries: One, what is a nation? Second, how does a nation maintain its identity over time, despite all the changes it has undergone? I propose a perdurantist (worm theoretical) approach to understanding nations. I argue that a nation is a four-dimensional worm, which has stages as temporal parts. The stages have combinations of the people, the territory and the state as components. Social treatments (e.g. collective intentionality, joint commitment, mental file…etc) are required to bind these stages together.
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dc.identifier.uri
http://hdl.handle.net/1842/35654
dc.language.iso
en
dc.publisher
The University of Edinburgh
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dc.subject
Nation
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dc.subject
Metaphysics
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dc.subject
Identity
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dc.subject
Social Ontology
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dc.subject
Perdurantism
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dc.title
Nation: its ontology and identity
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dc.type
Thesis or Dissertation
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dc.type.qualificationlevel
Masters
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dc.type.qualificationname
MSc Master of Science
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