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Single Idea 16730

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 8. Properties as Modes ]

Full Idea

Since these atoms are the whole of the corporeal matter or substance that exists in bodies, if we conceive or notice anything else to exist in these bodies, that is not a substance but only some kind of mode of the substance.

Gist of Idea

If matter is entirely atoms, anything else we notice in it can only be modes

Source

Pierre Gassendi (Syntagma [1658], II.1.6.1), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 22.4

Book Ref

Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.504

A Reaction

If the atoms have a few qualities of their own, are they just modes? If they are genuine powers, then there can be emergent powers, which are rather more than mere 'modes'.

Related Idea

Idea 16729 How do mere atoms produce qualities like colour, flavour and odour? [Gassendi]

The 17 ideas with the same theme [properties as simply ways of existing]:

10947 Whiteness can be explained without man, but femaleness cannot be explained without animal [Aristotle]
16644 The features of a thing (whether quality or quantity) are inseparable from their subjects [Aristotle]
14044 The perceived accidental properties of bodies cannot be conceived of as independent natures [Epicurus]
14045 Accidental properties give a body its nature, but are not themselves bodies or parts of bodies [Epicurus]
16645 Accidents are diminished beings, because they are dispositions of substance (unqualified being) [Henry of Ghent]
16643 Accidents always remain suited to a subject [Bonaventura]
11201 Properties have an incomplete essence, with definitions referring to their subject [Aquinas]
16641 Whiteness does not exist, but by it something can exist-as-white [Aquinas]
16665 There are entities, and then positive 'modes', modifying aspects outside the thing's essence [Suárez]
16666 A mode determines the state and character of a quantity, without adding to it [Suárez]
16668 Modes of things exist in some way, without being full-blown substances [Gassendi]
16730 If matter is entirely atoms, anything else we notice in it can only be modes [Gassendi]
16670 Accidents are just modes of thinking about bodies [Hobbes]
17171 A 'mode' is an aspect of a substance, and conceived through that substance [Spinoza]
16669 Everything that exists is either a being, or some mode of a being [Malebranche]
18353 Modes are beings that are related both to substances and to universals [Lowe]
16662 The biggest question for scholastics is whether properties are real, or modes of substances [Pasnau]