Single Idea 14046

[catalogued under 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 1. Unifying an Object / b. Unifying aggregates]

Full Idea

Properties are known by their peculiar forms of application and comprehension, in close accompaniment with the aggregate [of atoms], which is given the predicate 'body' by reference to the aggregate conception.

Gist of Idea

A 'body' is a conception of an aggregate, with properties defined by application conditions

Source

Epicurus (Letter to Herodotus [c.293 BCE], 69)

Book Reference

Epicurus: 'The Epicurus Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B. /Gerson,L. [Hackett 1994], p.14


A Reaction

There is an interesting hint here of how to think of properties (as both applying and comprehended in some distinctive way), and a suggestion that there is something conventional about bodies, depending on how we conceive them.

Related Ideas

Idea 14044 The perceived accidental properties of bodies cannot be conceived of as independent natures [Epicurus]

Idea 14045 Accidental properties give a body its nature, but are not themselves bodies or parts of bodies [Epicurus]

Idea 14047 Bodies have impermanent properties, and permanent ones which define its conceived nature [Epicurus]