John Biro (Univ of Florida)
“Things and stuff: against pluralism”
Some philosophers have convinced themselves that it is possible for two things to be in the same place at the same time. This thesis -- call it pluralism -- is supported by an appeal to Leibniz's law applied to cases such as a statue and its clay. I argue that the thesis cannot be true, as it runs afoul of what I call the separability principle: that it must be possible for distinct things to be in different places. I defend the principle against some putative counter-examples, argue that the statue and its clay do not satisfy it, and diagnose the mistake in thinking that they do.