Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Hermarchus, Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and David Hume

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3 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 2. Types of Existence
There is no medium state between existence and non-existence [Hume]
     Full Idea: Betwixt unity and number there can be no medium; no more than betwixt existence and non-existence.
     From: David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.2)
     A reaction: Just to confirm that, as you would expect, the great empiricist has no time for 'subsistence', or shadows and holes having lower grade existece.
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / e. Being and nothing
Prime matter is halfway between non-existence and existence [Averroes]
     Full Idea: Prime matter falls halfway, as it were, between complete non-existence and actual existence.
     From: Averroes (Ibn Rushd) (Commentary on 'Physics' [1190], I.70), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 03.1
7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 4. Abstract Existence
We can't think about the abstract idea of triangles, but only of particular triangles [Hume]
     Full Idea: Let any man try to conceive a triangle in general, which is neither Isoceles nor Scalenum, nor has any particular length or proportion of sides; and he will perceive the absurdity of all the scholastic notions with regard to abstraction and general ideas.
     From: David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], XII.II.122)
     A reaction: I think there is a basic error in this. I admit that I can only imagine a particular triangle, but it doesn't follow that I am thinking about one triangle. Ontology/epistemology confusion. I picture a shape while believing the shape to be irrelevant.