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