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Full Idea
If all there are corpuscles of various shapes and sizes, variously arranged, it is not easy to see how we might draw the boundary lines, at any given moment, between one substance and another.
Gist of Idea
If there are just arrangements of corpuscles, where are the boundaries between substances?
Source
Robert Pasnau (Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 [2011], 24.2)
Book Ref
Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.555
A Reaction
We still have precisely that problem, and it leads to the nihilism about ordinary objects found in Unger, Van Inwagen and Merricks. I have so far found modern defences of ordinary objects unpersuasive.
Related Ideas
Idea 13575 If there are borderline cases between natural kinds, that makes them superficial [Ellis]
Idea 17410 Moseley showed the elements progress in units, and thereby clearly identified the gaps [Scerri]
| 16675 | Every extended material substance is composed of parts distant from one another [William of Ockham] |
| 16707 | Cold and hot are the swiftness and slowness of corpuscular motion [Beeckman] |
| 16731 | Colours arise from the rarity, density and mixture of matter [Digby] |
| 15972 | The corpuscular theory allows motion, but does not include forces between the particles [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
| 17020 | An attraction of a body is the sum of the forces of their particles [Newton] |
| 16592 | Atomism is the commonest version of corpuscularianism, but isn't required by it [Pasnau] |
| 16750 | If there are just arrangements of corpuscles, where are the boundaries between substances? [Pasnau] |