Common Sense and Relativistic Supercoincidence

Abstract

Debates about material coincidence have a long and venerable history and tend to rely on common sense intuitions. For example, no two things can occupy the same place at the same time; a part cannot be identical to the whole; things can survive the loss and addition of small parts; nothing can have incompatible properties at a single moment of time. One underappreciated lesson of science is its ability to expand our theoretical imagination. This may be important for the metaphysics of material constitution and for metaphysics more generally. It also raises interesting questions about the relationships among science, philosophy, and common sense. The chapter also discusses such questions at various junctures in the development of the author's case by comparing and contrasting it with the traditional material coincidence puzzles.