53 ideas
9108 | From an impossibility anything follows [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: From an impossibility anything follows ('quod ex impossibili sequitur quodlibet'). | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], III.c.xxxvi) | |
A reaction: The hallmark of a true logician, I suspect, is that this opinion is really meaningful and important to them. They yearn to follow the logic wherever it leads. Common sense would seem to say that absolutely nothing follows from an impossibility. |
16676 | Why use more things when fewer will do? [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: It is pointless to do through more things something that can be done through fewer. | |
From: William of Ockham (Tractatus de corpore Christi [1323], Ch. 29), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 14.3 | |
A reaction: The more famous formulation isn't found in his works, so I'm delighted to find an authentic quotation from the man. |
6806 | Do not multiply entities beyond necessity [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Do not multiply entities beyond necessity. | |
From: William of Ockham (works [1335]) | |
A reaction: This is the classic statement of Ockham's Razor, though it is not found in his printed works. It appears to be mainly aimed at Plato's Theory of Forms. It is taken to refer to types of entities, not numbers. One seraph is as bad as a hundred. |
9107 | A proposition is true if its subject and predicate stand for the same thing [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: If in the proposition 'This is an angel' subject and predicate stand for the same thing, the proposition is true. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], II.c.ii) | |
A reaction: An interesting statement of what looks like a correspondence theory, employing the idea that both the subject and the predicate have a reference. I think Frege would say that 'x is an angel' is unsaturated, and so lacks reference. |
16300 | Ockham had an early axiomatic account of truth [William of Ockham, by Halbach] |
Full Idea: Theories structurally very similar to axiomatic compositional theories of truth can be found in Ockham's 'Summa Logicae'. | |
From: report of William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323]) by Volker Halbach - Axiomatic Theories of Truth 3 |
9106 | The word 'every' only signifies when added to a term such as 'man', referring to all men [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: The syncategorematic word 'every' does not signify any fixed thing, but when added to 'man' it makes the term 'man' stand for all men actually. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], I.c.iv) | |
A reaction: Although quantifiers may have become a part of formal logic with Frege, their importance is seen from Aristotle onwards, and it is clearly a key part of William's understanding of logic. |
9113 | Just as unity is not a property of a single thing, so numbers are not properties of many things [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Number is nothing but the actual numbered things themselves. Hence just as unity is not an accident added to the thing which is one, so number is not an accident of the things which are numbered. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], I.c.xliv) | |
A reaction: [William does not necessarily agree with this view] It strikes me as a key point here that any account of the numbers had better work for 'one', though 'zero' might be treated differently. Some people seem to think unity is a property of things. |
9110 | The words 'thing' and 'to be' assert the same idea, as a noun and as a verb [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: The words 'thing' and 'to be' (esse) signify one and the same thing, but the one in the manner of a noun and the other in the manner of a verb. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], III,II,c,xxvii) | |
A reaction: Well said - as you would expect from a thoroughgoing nominalist. I would have thought that this was the last word on the subject of Being, thus rendering any need for me to read Heidegger quite superfluous. Or am I missing something? |
16608 | Ockham was an anti-realist about the categories [William of Ockham, by Pasnau] |
Full Idea: Ockham is the scholastic paradigm of anti-realism with respect to the categories. | |
From: report of William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 05.3 | |
A reaction: These are the ten categories mentioned in Aristotle's book 'Categories'. |
16654 | Our words and concepts don't always correspond to what is out there [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: It should not be said that as distinct words and intentions or concepts are distinct from one another, so too the corresponding things are distinct. Those distinctions do not always line up with distinctions among things that are signified. | |
From: William of Ockham (Predest.,God's foreknowledge and contingents [1320], 7.1), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 12.2 | |
A reaction: [compressed] This is the great nominalist opponent of the idea that Aristotle's ten categories give an accurate map of reality. He proposed just substance and accidents, and based categorisation on the questions we ask. |
18529 | Relations are expressed either as absolute facts, or by a relational concept [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Socrates and Plato are similar if they are both white. Yet the mind can express this either by an 'absolute concept' (as 'Socrates is white' and 'Plato is white'), or by a 'relative concept', as 'Socrates is similar to Plato with respect to whiteness. | |
From: William of Ockham (Seven Quodlibets [1332], VI q.25), quoted by John Heil - The Universe as We Find It 7 | |
A reaction: Presumably he takes the facts of the matter to be the absolute concept, and the relative concept to be a contribution of the intellect. |
16669 | Everything that exists is either a being, or some mode of a being [Malebranche] |
Full Idea: It is absolutely necessary that everything in the world be either a being or a mode [manière] of a being. | |
From: Nicolas Malebranche (The Search After Truth [1675], III.2.8.ii), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 13.4 |
22132 | Species and genera are individual concepts which naturally signify many individuals [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: In his mature nominalism, species and genera are identified with certain mental qualities called concepts or intentions of the mind. Ontologically they are individuals too, like everthing else, ...but they naturally signify many different individuals. | |
From: William of Ockham (works [1335]), quoted by Claude Panaccio - William of Ockham p.1056 | |
A reaction: 'Naturally' is the key word, because the concepts are not fictions, but natural responses to encountering individuals in the world. I am an Ockhamist. |
9103 | A universal is not a real feature of objects, but only a thought-object in the mind [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: I maintain that a universal is not something real that exists in a subject [of inherence], either inside or outside the mind, but that it has being only as a thought-object in the mind. | |
From: William of Ockham (Ordinatio [1320], DII Qviii prima redactio) | |
A reaction: [A footnote says that William later abandoned this view] I don't see a clear distinction here between having real existence in the mind, and being a thought-object in the mind. Maybe we should say 'merely' a thought-object? |
15388 | Universals are single things, and only universal in what they signify [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Every universal is one particular thing and it is not a universal except in its signification, in its signifying many thing. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323]), quoted by Claude Panaccio - Medieval Problem of Universals 'William' | |
A reaction: Sounds as if William might have liked tropes. It seems to leave the problem unanswered (the 'ostrich' problem?). How are they able to signify in this universal way, if each thing is just distinct and particular? |
16779 | Cut wood doesn't make a new substance, but seems to make separate subjects [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: When a piece of wood is divided in two halves, no new substance is generated. But there are now two substances, or the accidents of the two halves would be without a subject. They existed before hand, and were one piece of wood, but not in the same place. | |
From: William of Ockham (Seven Quodlibets [1332], IV.19), quoted by Richard S. Westfall - Never at Rest: a biography of Isaac Newton 26.2 | |
A reaction: A nice example, demonstrating that there are substances within substances, contrary to the view of Duns Scotus. If a substance is just a subject for properties, it is hard to know what to make of this case. |
16757 | Hot water naturally cools down, which is due to the substantial form of the water [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: It is clear to the senses that hot water, if left to its own nature, reverts to coldness; this coldness cannot be caused by anything other than the substantial form of the water. | |
From: William of Ockham (Seven Quodlibets [1332], III.6), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 24.4 | |
A reaction: Unfortunately this is very bad science (even for its time), but it shows how many scholastics treated hylomorphism as a very physical and causal theory. |
16599 | Ockham says matter must be extended, so we don't need Quantity [William of Ockham, by Pasnau] |
Full Idea: Ockham regards Quantity as an entirely superfluous ontological category, …because matter is intrinsically extended. | |
From: report of William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 04.4 |
16681 | Matter gets its quantity from condensation and rarefaction, which is just local motion [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Matter is made to have a greater or lesser quantity not through its receiving any absolute accident, but through condensation and rarefaction alone. Parts come more or less close together, which can happen with local motion. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320], I.13), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 15.1 | |
A reaction: This is Ockham at his most modern, rejecting the odd idea of Quantity in favour of a modern corpuscular view of the mere motions of matter. |
9109 | If essence and existence were two things, one could exist without the other, which is impossible [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: If essence and existence were two things, then no contradiction would be involved if God preserved the essence of a thing in the world without its existence, or vice versa, its existence without its essence; both of which are impossible. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], III,II,c,xxvii) | |
A reaction: Not that William is using the concept of a supreme mind as a tool in argument. His denial of essence as something separable is presumably his denial of the Aristotelian view of universals, as well as of the Platonic view. |
16792 | If parts change, the whole changes [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: That is not the same whole that does not have the same parts. | |
From: William of Ockham (Commentary on the Sentences [1320], IV.13), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 29.2 | |
A reaction: In isolation, this is mereological essentialism (as Pasnau confirms), which is incredibly implausible, if I cease to be the same person when I cut one of my fingernails. |
9089 | Knowledge is a quality existing subjectively in the soul [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Knowledge is a certain quality which exists in the soul as its subject ('existens subiective in anima'). | |
From: William of Ockham (Expositio super viii libros [1340], Prologue) | |
A reaction: One might say here that knowledge is a property, and so it might not be susceptible to further analysis. It invites the question of how you could know by introspection that you have got it, which would be an extreme internalist view. |
9091 | Sometimes 'knowledge' just concerns the conclusion, sometimes the whole demonstration [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Sometimes 'knowledge' means evident cognition of the conclusion alone, sometimes of the demonstration as a whole. | |
From: William of Ockham (Expositio super viii libros [1340], Prologue) | |
A reaction: 'Demonstration' will be something like Greek 'logos' - full understanding, ability to explain and give reasons. William is certainly right about normal usage. I know the answer in a quiz, without any requirement for justifications. |
9100 | Our intellect only assents to what we believe to be true [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Our intellect does not assent to anything unless we believe it to be true. | |
From: William of Ockham (Prologue to Ordinatio [1320], Q 1 N sqq) | |
A reaction: This strikes me as being a much more accurate and commonsense view of belief than that of Hume, who simply views it phenomenologically. ...But then the remark appears to be circular. Belief requires a belief that it is true. Hm. |
9090 | Knowledge is certain cognition of something that is true [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Knowledge is certain cognition of something that is true. | |
From: William of Ockham (Expositio super viii libros [1340], Prologue) | |
A reaction: This view has problems. William is not facing up to the sceptical questions which can shake any degree of certainty, and also that someone who lacked self-confidence might know many things while always feeling uncertain about them. 'Cognition' must go! |
9101 | Abstractive cognition knows universals abstracted from many singulars [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Abstractive cognition (in one sense) relates to something abstracted from many singulars; and in this sense abstractive cognition is nothing else but cognition of a universal which can be abstracted from many things. | |
From: William of Ockham (Prologue to Ordinatio [1320], Q 1 N sqq) | |
A reaction: This strikes me as being correct common sense, even though it has become deeply unfashionable since Frege. We may not be able to see quite how the mind manages to see universals in a bunch of objects, but there is no better story. |
9102 | If an animal approached from a distance, we might abstract 'animal' from one instance [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: It seems possible that the concept of a genus could be abstracted from one individual, let us say, the concept 'animal', as in the case of one approaching from a distance, when I see enough to judge that I am seeing an animal. | |
From: William of Ockham (Seven Quodlibets [1332], I Q xiii) | |
A reaction: This is a rather individualistic view of abstraction, ignoring the shared language and culture. It is hard to imagine a truly virgin mind coming up with the concept after one encounter. The concept 'mind-boggling' seems more likely. |
9114 | There are no secure foundations to prove the separate existence of mind, in reason or experience [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: The existence of an immaterial 'intellective soul' ..cannot be demonstrated; for every reason by which we try to prove it assumes something that is doubtful for a man who follows only his natural reason. Neither can it be proved by experience. | |
From: William of Ockham (Seven Quodlibets [1332], I Q x) | |
A reaction: This is splendid honesty from a medieval monk. How would such a clear thinker have responded to modern brain research? Colin McGinn still maintains William's view, despite modern knowledge. Our ignorance produced conceptual dualism. |
9104 | A universal is the result of abstraction, which is only a kind of mental picturing [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: A universal is not the result of generation, but of abstraction, which is only a kind of mental picturing. | |
From: William of Ockham (Ordinatio [1320], DII Qviii prima redactio) | |
A reaction: The phrase 'mental picturing' works very plausibly for the universal 'giraffe', but not so well for 'multiplication' or 'contradiction'. Though we might broaden 'picturing' to being a much less visual concept. Mapping seems basic. |
9105 | Some concepts for propositions exist only in the mind, and in no language [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Conceptual terms and the propositions formed by them are those mental words which do not belong to any language; they remain only in the mind and cannot be uttered exteriorly, though signs subordinated to these can be exteriorly uttered. | |
From: William of Ockham (Summa totius logicae [1323], I.c.i) | |
A reaction: [He cites Augustine] A glimmer of the idea of Mentalese, and is probably an integral part of any commitment to propositions. Quine would hate it, but I like it. Logicians seem to dislike anything that cannot be articulated, but brains are like that. |
16675 | Every extended material substance is composed of parts distant from one another [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Every extended material substance is composed of substantial parts distant from one another in place or location. | |
From: William of Ockham (Tractatus de corpore Christi [1323], Ch. 12) | |
A reaction: Pasnau glosses this as that 'bodies have corpuscular structure', meaning that they are made up of parts of matter (rather than just enformed matter, I think). |
2594 | A true cause must involve a necessary connection between cause and effect [Malebranche] |
Full Idea: A true cause as I understand it is one such that the mind perceives a necessary connection between it and its effects. | |
From: Nicolas Malebranche (The Union of Body and Soul [1675], p.116) |
12726 | In a true cause we see a necessary connection [Malebranche] |
Full Idea: A true cause is one in which the mind perceives a necessary connection between the cause and its effect. | |
From: Nicolas Malebranche (The Search After Truth [1675], 1.649 (450)), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 5 | |
A reaction: Presumably Hume was ignorant of 'true' causes, since he says he never saw this connection. But then is the perception done by the mind, or by the senses? |
21202 | The strong force has a considerably greater range than the weak force [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: The strong nuclear force has a range of 10^-15 m, considerably larger than the range of the weak force. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01) | |
A reaction: This is because the bosons transmitting the weak force (W+, W-, W°) are much heavier than the gluons of the strong force. |
21211 | If an expected reaction does not occur, that implies a conservation law [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: If some reaction is not observed when there is apparently nothing to prevent it occurring, it is an indication that a conservation law is in operation. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 07) |
21209 | Electron emit and reabsorb photons, which create and reabsorb virtual electrons and positrons [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: In QED an electron constantly emits and reabsorbs virtual photons and these photons constantly create and reabsorb pairs of virtual electrons and positrons, and so on. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 06) | |
A reaction: 'And so on'! These virtual particles have energy, and hence mass. |
21212 | The Higgs field, unlike others, has a nozero value in a state without particles [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: The Higgs field has the property of having a nonzero value in a state without particles, the vacuum state. Other fields are assumed to have a value zero in a vacuum state. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 09) | |
A reaction: This seems to make a big difference to our concept of a field, since it has a measurable reality even when there are no particles. So it isn't just a geometrical frame for locating particles. |
21201 | A 'field' is just a region to which points can be assigned in space and time [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: The word 'field' is simply a shorthand way of saying that a physical property is assigned to the points of space and time in a region. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01) | |
A reaction: This is disappointing because I had begun to think that fields were foundational for modern ontology. Turns out they are operational abstractions (according to Martin). Note that a field extends over time. |
21205 | Many physicists believe particles have further structure, if only we could see it [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: Although standard particles are assumed to be structureless, many physicists believe that if distances could be probed down to 10^-35 m structures would be discovered. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01) | |
A reaction: Such probing is said to be probably impossible. And does the division then come to a halt? Aristotle's meditations on this are not irrelevant. |
21203 | Uncertainty allows very brief violations of energy conservation - even shorter with higher energies [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: The uncertainty principle states that energy conservation can be violated, but only for a limited period of time. As the energy violation increases, the time period within which 'borrowed' energy has to be 'paid back' decreases. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01) | |
A reaction: This is the only reason modern physicists ever seem to mention the uncertainty principle. You can ask why this debt must be paid, but it seems to be hidden where the laws of physics may not even apply. |
21207 | The Exclusion Principle says no two fermions occupy the same state, with the same numbers [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: The 'exclusion principle' initially stated that no two electrons in a system could simultaneously occupy the same quantum state and thus have the same set of quantum numbers. The principle actually applies to all fermions, but not to bosons. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 02) | |
A reaction: This principle is said to be at the root of atomic structure, making each element unique. What exactly is a 'system'? Why does this principle hold? How do you ensure two women don't wear the same dress at a party? |
21204 | The standard model combines theories of strong interaction, and electromagnetic and weak interaction [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: As presently formulated, the standard model is two theories. One operates in the sector of strong interaction, and the other in the sector of the electromagnetic and weak interactions. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01) | |
A reaction: The first is Quantum Chomodynamics (QCD). The second is Quantum Electrodynamics (QED). Interesting that the weak interaction is included in the latter, which (I take it) means there is an electro-weak union. Interactions are the heart of the model. |
21208 | Eletrons don't literally 'spin', because they are point-like [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: The picture of a particle spinning like a top is sometime useful, but it is not consistent with the idea of the electron being point-like. In fact there is no analogy for spin in non-quantum physics. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 02) | |
A reaction: If we take this stuff literally then it blow traditional metaphysics to bits, because an electron has properties without being a substance. In what sense can an electron 'have' properties if it is a point? In interactions they cease to be points. Eh? |
21210 | Virtual particles surround any charged particle [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: A cloud of virtual particles always surrounds a charged particle. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 06) | |
A reaction: Here's a nice fact for aspiring Buddhists to meditate on. |
21206 | The properties of a particle are determined by its quantum numbers and its mass [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: In quantum theory, the full set of quantum numbers defines the state of the particle and, along with its mass, determines its properties. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 02) |
21213 | String theory only has one free parameter (tension) - unlike the standard model with 19 [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: Unlike the standard model, with its 19 free parameters (including the masses of quarks, coupling constants and mixing angles), string theories have a single free paramater: the string tension. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 10) | |
A reaction: This must be one feature in favour of string theory, despite its problems. |
19381 | The past has ceased to exist, and the future does not yet exist, so time does not exist [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: Time is composed of non-entities, because it is composed of the past which does not exist now, although it did exist, and of the future, which does not yet exist; therefore time does not exist. | |
From: William of Ockham (works [1335], 6:496), quoted by Richard T.W. Arthur - Leibniz 7 'Nominalist' | |
A reaction: I've a lot of sympathy with this! I favour Presentism, so the past is gone and the future is yet to arrive. But we have no coherent concept of a present moment of any duration to contain reality. We are just completely bogglificated by it all. |
21200 | An 'element' is what cannot be decomposed by chemistry [Martin,BR] |
Full Idea: In the modern sense 'element' means a substance that cannot be decomposed by the methods of chemistry. | |
From: Brian R. Martin (Particle Physics [2011], 01) |
9111 | God is not wise, but more-than-wise; God is not good, but more-than-good [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: God is not wise, but more-than-wise; God is not good, but more-than-good. | |
From: William of Ockham (Reportatio [1330], III Q viii) | |
A reaction: [He is quoting 'Damascene'] I quote this for interest, but I very much doubt whether Damascene or William knew what it meant, and I certainly don't. There seems to have been a politically correct desire to invent super-powers for God. |
8010 | William of Ockham is the main spokesman for God's commands being the source of morality [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: The most notable philosopher who makes God's commandment the basis of goodness, rather than God's goodness a reason for obeying him, is William of Occam. | |
From: William of Ockham (works [1335]), quoted by Alasdair MacIntyre - A Short History of Ethics Ch.9 | |
A reaction: Either view has problems. Why choose God to obey? Obey anyone who is powerful? But how do you decide that God is good? How do we know the nature of God's commands, or the nature of God's goodness? Etc. |
9112 | We could never form a concept of God's wisdom if we couldn't abstract it from creatures [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: What we abstract is said to belong to perfection in so far as it can be predicated of God and can stand for Him. For if such a concept could not be abstracted from a creature, then in this life we could not arrive at a cognition of God's wisdom. | |
From: William of Ockham (Reportatio [1330], III Q viii) | |
A reaction: This seems to be the germ of an important argument. Without the ability to abstract from what is experienced, we would not be able to apply general concepts to things which are beyond experience. It is a key idea for empiricism. |
9115 | To love God means to love whatever God wills to be loved [William of Ockham] |
Full Idea: To love God above all means to love whatever God wills to be loved. | |
From: William of Ockham (Seven Quodlibets [1332], III Q xiii) | |
A reaction: A striking thought, which could be meaningful to the non-religious. Is it possible to form an image of what a perfect and ideal mind would love most? This might generate a set of universal values. It is tricky to find out what an actual God loves. |
16679 | Even an angel must have some location [William of Ockham, by Pasnau] |
Full Idea: Ockham dismisses the possibility of non-location out of hand, remarking that even an angel has some location. | |
From: report of William of Ockham (works [1335]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 14.4 |