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Full Idea
The principium individuationis, 'tis plain, is existence itself, which determines a being of any sort to a particular time and place incommunicable to two beings of the same kind.
Clarification
The 'principium individuationis' (Latin) is the principle of individuation
Gist of Idea
A thing is individuated just by existing at a time and place
Source
John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.27.03)
Book Ref
Locke,John: 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding', ed/tr. Nidditch,P.H. [OUP 1979], p.330
A Reaction
I wish I could get completely clear about what a 'principle of individuation' is supposed to do. E.J. Lowe is always banging on about them. I would have thought that being an individual had to precede any 'principle' underlying it.
Related Idea
Idea 13098 We use things to distinguish places and times, not vice versa [Leibniz]
| 14960 | Bodies are independent of thought, and coincide with part of space [Hobbes] |
| 17250 | If you separate the two places of one thing, you will also separate the thing [Hobbes] |
| 17249 | If you separated two things in the same place, you would also separate the places [Hobbes] |
| 12506 | A thing is individuated just by existing at a time and place [Locke] |
| 12563 | Obviously two bodies cannot be in the same place [Locke] |
| 12693 | A body is that which exists in space [Leibniz] |
| 13098 | We use things to distinguish places and times, not vice versa [Leibniz] |
| 21535 | Objects only exist if they 'occupy' space and time [Russell] |
| 16496 | Singling out extends back and forward in time [Wiggins] |
| 4480 | Times and places are identified by objects, so cannot be used in a theory of object-identity [Loux] |
| 8292 | Diversity of two tigers is their difference in space-time; difference of matter is a consequence [Lowe] |
| 7961 | A 'thing' cannot be in two places at once, and two things cannot be in the same place at once [Macdonald,C] |