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Full Idea
It is through discourse that the same thing flits around, becoming one and many in all sorts of ways.
Gist of Idea
A thing can become one or many, depending on how we talk about it
Source
Plato (Philebus [c.353 BCE], 15d)
Book Ref
Plato: 'Complete Works', ed/tr. Cooper,John M. [Hackett 1997], p.403
A Reaction
This is not scepticism about wholes on Plato's part, but a reminder of an obvious fact, that in thought we can break the world up and put it back together again. It is a touchstone of the debate, though.
| 15856 | A thing can become one or many, depending on how we talk about it [Plato] |
| 17839 | Some things are unified by their account, which rests on a unified thought about the thing [Aristotle] |
| 2297 | If I can separate two things in my understanding, then God can separate them in reality [Descartes] |
| 13160 | To exist and be understood, a multitude must first be reduced to a unity [Leibniz] |
| 12746 | We find unity in reason, and unity in perception, but these are not true unity [Leibniz] |
| 12035 | Leibniz bases pure primitive entities on conjunctions of qualitative properties [Leibniz, by Adams,RM] |
| 20362 | We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) [Nietzsche] |
| 14252 | We should understand identity in terms of the propositions it renders true [Fine,K] |
| 13332 | Hierarchical set membership models objects better than the subset or aggregate relations do [Fine,K] |
| 14928 | Things are abstractions from structures [Ladyman/Ross] |
| 14481 | Wherever an object exists, there are intrinsic properties instantiating every modal profile [Thomasson] |