Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Peter Geach, Gottfried Leibniz and Aristotle

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100 ideas

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 1. Nature
5085 'Nature' refers to two things - form and matter [Aristotle]
5113 Nothing natural is disorderly, because nature is responsible for all order [Aristotle]
632 Why are some things destructible and others not? [Aristotle]
1740 Nature does nothing in vain [Aristotle]
19429 The principle of determination in things obtains the greatest effect with the least effort [Leibniz]
5092 Nature is a principle of change, so we must understand change first [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / a. Final purpose
396 There has to be some goal, and not just movement to infinity [Aristotle]
5089 Nature has purpose, and aims at what is better. Is it coincidence that crops grow when it rains? [Aristotle]
2809 If nature makes everything for a purpose, then plants and animals must have been made for man [Aristotle]
626 Everything is arranged around a single purpose [Aristotle]
394 An unworn sandal is in vain, but nothing in nature is in vain [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / b. Limited purposes
5086 The nature of a thing is its end and purpose [Aristotle]
5091 Teeth and crops are predictable, so they cannot be mere chance, but must have a purpose [Aristotle]
2684 Aristotle needed to distinguish teleological description from teleological explanation [Irwin on Aristotle]
5227 The nature of any given thing is determined by its end [Aristotle]
2800 The best instruments have one purpose, not many [Aristotle]
5866 It is folly not to order one's life around some end [Aristotle]
19376 A machine is best defined by its final cause, which explains the roles of the parts [Leibniz]
5087 A thing's purpose is ambiguous, and from one point of view we ourselves are ends [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / c. Purpose denied
5878 Eyes could be used for a natural purpose, or for unnatural seeing, or for a non-seeing activity [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 3. Natural Function
5108 Is ceasing-to-be unnatural if it happens by force, and natural otherwise? [Aristotle]
5873 Each thing's function is its end [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 4. Mathematical Nature
19356 Minds unconsciously count vibration beats in music, and enjoy it when they coincide [Leibniz]
17858 Pythagoreans say the whole universe is made of numbers [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 5. Infinite in Nature
5093 Continuity depends on infinity, because the continuous is infinitely divisible [Aristotle]
5095 The heavens seem to be infinite, because we cannot imagine their end [Aristotle]
8660 There are potential infinities (never running out), but actual infinity is incoherent [Aristotle, by Friend]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / a. Greek matter
16590 Matter is neither a particular thing nor a member of a determinate category [Aristotle]
12001 Aristotle says matter is a lesser substance, rather than wholly denying that it is a substance [Aristotle, by Kung]
10955 Matter is perceptible (like bronze) or intelligible (like mathematical objects) [Aristotle]
601 Substance must exist, because something must endure during change between opposites [Aristotle]
12299 Aristotle had a hierarchical conception of matter [Aristotle, by Fine,K]
16762 Matter desires form, as female desires male, and ugliness desires beauty [Aristotle]
13216 Matter is the limit of points and lines, and must always have quality and form [Aristotle]
17994 The primary matter is the substratum for the contraries like hot and cold [Aristotle]
12058 Aristotle's matter can become any other kind of matter [Aristotle, by Wiggins]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / b. Prime matter
15771 Primary matter is what characterises other stuffs, and it has no distinct identity [Aristotle]
12868 Ultimate matter is discredited, as Aristotle merged substratum of change with bearer of properties [Simons on Aristotle]
15954 Aristotle may only have believed in prime matter because his elements were immutable [Aristotle, by Alexander,P]
16099 The traditional view of Aristotle is God (actual form) at top and prime matter (potential matter) at bottom [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
19399 Prime matter is nothing when it is at rest [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / c. Ultimate substances
13224 There couldn't be just one element, which was both water and air at the same time [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / e. The One
616 It doesn't explain the world to say it was originally all one. How did it acquire diversity? [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / f. Ancient elements
17464 When Aristotle's elements compound they are stable, so why would they ever separate? [Weisberg/Needham/Hendry on Aristotle]
16102 Aether moves in circles and is imperishable; the four elements perish, and move in straight lines [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
17463 An element is what bodies are analysed into, and won't itself divide into something else [Aristotle]
16594 The Four Elements must change into one another, or else alteration is impossible [Aristotle]
13223 Fire is hot and dry; Air is hot and moist; Water is cold and moist; Earth is cold and dry [Aristotle]
16098 I claim that Aristotle's foundation is the four elements, and not wholly potential prime matter [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
12707 The true elements are atomic monads [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / g. Atomism
13220 Bodies are endlessly divisible [Aristotle]
2105 Things are infinitely subdivisible and contain new worlds, which atoms would make impossible [Leibniz]
2106 The only simple things are monads, with no parts or extension [Leibniz]
13210 Wood is potentially divided through and through, so what is there in the wood besides the division? [Aristotle]
13211 If a body is endlessly divided, is it reduced to nothing - then reassembled from nothing? [Aristotle]
15955 I think the corpuscular theory, rather than forms or qualities, best explains particular phenomena [Leibniz]
12728 Leibniz rejected atoms, because they must be elastic, and hence have parts [Leibniz, by Garber]
2102 Atomism is irrational because it suggests that two atoms can be indistinguishable [Leibniz]
19374 Microscopes and the continuum suggest that matter is endlessly divisible [Leibniz]
12759 There are atoms of substance, but no atoms of bulk or extension [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 7. Later Matter Theories / a. Early Modern matter
7560 Leibniz struggled to reconcile bodies with a reality of purely soul-like entities [Jolley on Leibniz]
12718 Secondary matter is active and complete; primary matter is passive and incomplete [Leibniz]
19416 Not all of matter is animated, any more than a pond full of living fish is animated [Leibniz]
19422 Every particle of matter contains organic bodies [Leibniz]
19436 Bare or primary matter is passive; it is clothed or secondary matter which contains action [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 7. Later Matter Theories / c. Matter as extension
13185 Even if extension is impenetrable, this still offers no explanation for motion and its laws [Leibniz]
16683 Leibniz eventually said resistance, rather than extension, was the essence of body [Leibniz, by Pasnau]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 1. Natural Kinds
10952 Unusual kinds like mule are just a combination of two kinds [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 2. Defining Kinds
12265 All water is the same, because of a certain similarity [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 6. Necessity of Kinds
12375 Whatever holds of a kind intrinsically holds of it necessarily [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 2. Types of cause
11252 The 'form' of a thing explains why the matter constitutes that particular thing [Aristotle, by Politis]
11253 A 'material' cause/explanation is the form of whatever is the source [Aristotle, by Politis]
13107 Causes produce a few things in their own right, and innumerable things coincidentally [Aristotle]
5219 Types of cause are nature, necessity and chance, and mind and human agency [Aristotle]
19425 In the schools the Four Causes are just lumped together in a very obscure way [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 3. Final causes
8332 The four causes are the material, the form, the source, and the end [Aristotle]
5059 Power rules in efficient causes, but wisdom rules in connecting them to final causes [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 4. Naturalised causation
561 Is there cause outside matter, and can it be separated, and is it one or many? [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 5. Direction of causation
5861 People assume events cause what follows them [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / c. Conditions of causation
588 We exercise to be fit, but need fitness to exercise [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / b. Nomological causation
634 Pure Forms and numbers can't cause anything, and especially not movement [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / d. Causal necessity
14543 When a power and its object meet in the right conditions, an action necessarily follows [Aristotle]
2117 The connection in events enables us to successfully predict the future, so there must be a constant cause [Leibniz]
12702 Causes can be inferred from perfect knowledge of their effects [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 1. Laws of Nature
12907 Each possible world contains its own laws, reflected in the possible individuals of that world [Leibniz]
13194 God's laws would be meaningless without internal powers for following them [Leibniz]
13177 An entelechy is a law of the series of its event within some entity [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / a. Scientific essentialism
11854 If there is some trace of God in things, that would explain their natural force [Leibniz]
11856 Qualities should be predictable from the nature of the subject [Leibniz]
12994 Gold has a real essence, unknown to us, which produces its properties [Leibniz]
12808 Part of our idea of gold is its real essence, which is not known to us in detail [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / b. Scientific necessity
11043 It is not possible for fire to be cold or snow black [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / c. Essence and laws
19403 Each of the infinite possible worlds has its own laws, and the individuals contain those laws [Leibniz]
12725 Leibniz wanted to explain motion and its laws by the nature of body [Leibniz, by Garber]
16507 The law within something fixes its persistence, and accords with general laws of nature [Leibniz]
11945 In addition to laws, God must also create appropriate natures for things [Leibniz]
13198 Gravity is within matter because of its structure, and it can be explained. [Leibniz]
13093 The only permanence in things, constituting their substance, is a law of continuity [Leibniz]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 8. Scientific Essentialism / d. Knowing essences
9787 Scientists must know the essential attributes of the things they study [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 10. Closure of Physics
7859 Leibniz had an unusual commitment to the causal completeness of physics [Leibniz, by Papineau]