THINGS, OBJECTS, and PERSONS

In this book I discuss the concepts of existence and substance in relation to the nature of things, objects, and persons and their persistence through time. What is this substance that constitutes things, objects, and persons? Is it something other than the Does it exist as an identifiable entity in the form of atoms and subatomic particles like protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, and muons, or do we make it up from our experiences of touch, taste, smell, sight, and hearing that we gather from contact with our environment? How do things, objects, and persons exist and persist from moment to moment through time; are they wholly present, or do we construct them from their temporal parts or their stages that we perceive intermittently or continuously over limited periods? And how do immaterial objects like numbers and fictional objects like unicorns exist, if we can talk intelligently about them? What about our own identities; are we also temporal parts or stages of the material entities that we are, or are we different because we claim to have souls or minds that set us apart from inanimate objects and other living material bodies, viz., animals? I introduce these puzzling questions for the readers' consideration and to invite their conceivably differing opinions on them.