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Single Idea 12862
[filed under theme 7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 8. Stuff / a. Pure stuff
]
Full Idea
The mass of gold cannot be identified with the gold atoms, because whatever is part of the gold atoms is gold, whereas not every part of the gold is gold (for example, the neutrons in it are not gold).
Gist of Idea
Gold is not its atoms, because the atoms must be all gold, but gold contains neutrons
Source
Peter Simons (Parts [1987], 6.4)
Book Ref
Simons,Peter: 'Parts: a Study in Ontology' [OUP 1987], p.234
A Reaction
There is something too quick about arguments like this. It comes back to nominal v real essence. We apply 'gold' to the superficial features of the stuff, but deep down we may actually mean the atomic structure. See Idea 12812.
Related Idea
Idea 12812
Things have real essences, but we categorise them according to the ideas we receive [Locke]
The
17 ideas
with the same theme
[general masses which are fairly homogeneous]:
16771
|
A composite is a true unity if all of its parts fall under one essence
[Scheibler]
|
6472
|
Continuity is a sufficient criterion for the identity of a rock, but not for part of a smooth fluid
[Russell]
|
16939
|
Mass terms just concern spread, but other terms involve both spread and individuation
[Quine]
|
15319
|
Hard individual blocks don't fix what 'things' are; fluids are no less material things
[Harré/Madden]
|
15501
|
We have no idea of a third sort of thing, that isn't an individual, a class, or their mixture
[Lewis]
|
15504
|
Atomless gunk is an individual whose parts all have further proper parts
[Lewis]
|
17578
|
I reject talk of 'stuff', and treat it in terms of particles
[Inwagen]
|
12793
|
Early pre-Socratics had a mass-noun ontology, which was replaced by count-nouns
[Benardete,JA]
|
13386
|
If objects are just conventional, there is no ontological distinction between stuff and things
[Jubien]
|
13488
|
Mass words do not have plurals, or numerical adjectives, or use 'fewer'
[Hart,WD]
|
15014
|
Unlike things, stuff obeys unrestricted composition and mereological essentialism
[Sider]
|
12847
|
Mass nouns admit 'much' and 'a little', and resist 'many' and 'few'.
[Simons]
|
12863
|
Mass terms (unlike plurals) are used with indifference to whether they can exist in units
[Simons]
|
12862
|
Gold is not its atoms, because the atoms must be all gold, but gold contains neutrons
[Simons]
|
12792
|
The category of stuff does not suit reference
[Laycock]
|
12799
|
Descriptions of stuff are neither singular aggregates nor plural collections
[Laycock]
|
17436
|
We talk of snow as what stays the same, when it is a heap or drift or expanse
[Koslicki]
|