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Single Idea 15825

[filed under theme 9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 6. Identity between Objects ]

Full Idea

Carneades denied the principle of the transitivity of identity.

Gist of Idea

Carneades denied the transitivity of identity

Source

report of Carneades (fragments/reports [c.174 BCE], fr 41-42) by Roderick Chisholm - Person and Object 3.1

Book Ref

Chisholm,Roderick: 'Person and Object' [Open Court 1976], p.91


A Reaction

Chisholm calls this 'extreme', but I assume Carneades wouldn't deny the principle in mathematics. I'm guessing that he just means that nothing ever stays quite the same.


The 10 ideas from Carneades

Carneades' pinnacles of philosophy are the basis of knowledge (the criterion of truth) and the end of appetite (good) [Carneades, by Cicero]
Future events are true if one day we will say 'this event is happening now' [Carneades]
We say future things are true that will possess actuality at some following time [Carneades, by Cicero]
Carneades distinguished logical from causal necessity, when talking of future events [Long on Carneades]
Voluntary motion is intrinsically within our power, and this power is its cause [Carneades, by Cicero]
Some actions are within our power; determinism needs prior causes for everything - so it is false [Carneades, by Cicero]
Even Apollo can only foretell the future when it is naturally necessary [Carneades, by Cicero]
Carneades said that after a shipwreck a wise man would seize the only plank by force [Carneades, by Tuck]
People change laws for advantage; either there is no justice, or it is a form of self-injury [Carneades, by Lactantius]
Carneades denied the transitivity of identity [Carneades, by Chisholm]