more from this thinker
|
more from this text
Single Idea 15567
[filed under theme 7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 4. Events / a. Nature of events
]
Full Idea
Not all events involve change. We cannot afford to count the unchanges as nonevents, for the unchanges may be needed to complete causal histories.
Gist of Idea
Some events involve no change; they must, because causal histories involve unchanges
Source
David Lewis (Events [1986], VI)
Book Ref
Lewis,David: 'Philosophical Papers Vol.2' [OUP 1986], p.261
A Reaction
You end up calling non-changes 'events' if you commit to a simplistic theory that all causal histories consist of events. Why not allow conditions as well as events? Lewis concedes that he may be abusing language.
The
17 ideas
with the same theme
[what we should take events to consist of]:
|
15832
|
Events are states of affairs that occur at certain places and times
[Chisholm]
|
|
8439
|
Maybe each event has only one possible causal history
[Bennett]
|
|
8440
|
Maybe an event's time of occurrence is essential to it
[Bennett]
|
|
7771
|
We need 'events' to explain adverbs, which are adjectival predicates of events
[Davidson, by Lycan]
|
|
8860
|
Language-learning is not good enough evidence for the existence of events
[Yablo on Davidson]
|
|
17520
|
Events do not have natural boundaries, and we have to set them
[Ayers]
|
|
15561
|
The events that suit semantics may not be the events that suit causation
[Lewis]
|
|
15565
|
Events have inbuilt essences, as necessary conditions for their occurrence
[Lewis]
|
|
15566
|
Events are classes, and so there is a mereology of their parts
[Lewis]
|
|
15567
|
Some events involve no change; they must, because causal histories involve unchanges
[Lewis]
|
|
3310
|
If slowness is a property of walking rather than the walker, we must allow that events exist
[Benardete,JA]
|
|
8270
|
Events are changes or non-changes in properties and relations of persisting objects
[Lowe]
|
|
4219
|
Numerically distinct events of the same kind (like two battles) can coincide in space and time
[Lowe]
|
|
8973
|
Einstein's relativity brought events into ontology, as the terms of a simultaneity relationships
[Simons]
|
|
6143
|
Prolonged events don't seem to endure or exist at any particular time
[Merricks]
|
|
12840
|
I do not think there is a general identity condition for events
[Simons]
|
|
14541
|
Events are essentially changes; property exemplifications are just states of affairs
[Mumford/Anjum]
|