more from this thinker     |     more from this text


Single Idea 16717

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / b. Primary/secondary ]

Full Idea

What sorts of contrarities, and how many of them, are to be accounted 'originative sources' of body?

Gist of Idea

Which of the contrary features of a body are basic to it?

Source

Aristotle (Coming-to-be and Passing-away (Gen/Corr) [c.335 BCE], 329b04)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'The Basic Works of Aristotle', ed/tr. McKeon,Richard [Modern Library Classics 2001], p.509


A Reaction

Pasnau says these pages of Aristotle are the source of the doctrine of primary and secondary qualities. Essentially, hot, cold, wet and dry are his four primary qualities.


The 19 ideas with the same theme [dividing qualities into different types]:

Which of the contrary features of a body are basic to it? [Aristotle]
Why can't we deduce secondary qualities from primary ones, if they cause them? [Buridan]
Secondary qualities come from temperaments and proportions of primary qualities [Conimbricense]
Colours, smells and tastes are ideas; the secondary qualities have no colour, smell or taste [Locke, by Alexander,P]
Secondary qualities are powers of complex primary qualities to produce sensations in us [Locke]
Hands can report conflicting temperatures, but not conflicting shapes [Locke]
We can't know how primary and secondary qualities connect together [Locke]
We know the shape of a cone from its concept, but we don't know its colour [Kant]
Essentialists mostly accept the primary/secondary qualities distinction [Ellis]
We achieve objectivity by dropping secondary qualities, to focus on structural primary qualities [Nagel]
Modern science depends on the distinction between primary and secondary qualities [Nagel]
Light wavelengths entering the eye are only indirectly related to object colours [Dennett]
Relativity means differing secondary perceptions are not real disagreements [McGinn]
Phenomenalism is correct for secondary qualities, so scepticism is there impossible [McGinn]
Being red simply consists in looking red [McGinn]
Maybe all possible sense experience must involve both secondary and primary qualities [McGinn]
You understood being red if you know the experience involved; not so with thngs being square [McGinn]
Secondary qualities have one sensory mode, but primary qualities can have more [Robinson,H]
Objects only have secondary qualities because they have primary qualities [Heil]