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Single Idea 16751

[filed under theme 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 1. Unifying an Object / a. Intrinsic unification ]

Full Idea

The Coimbrans have five degrees of unity: by aggregation (stones), by order (an army), per accidens (inherence), per se composite unity (connected), and per se unity of simple things.

Gist of Idea

Unity by aggregation, order, inherence, composition, and simplicity

Source

report of Collegium Conimbricense (Aristotelian commentaries [1595], Phys I.9.11.2) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 24.3

Book Ref

Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.556


A Reaction

[my summary of Pasnau's summary] Take some stones, then order them, then glue them together, then melt them together. The unity of inherence is a different type of unity from these stages. This is a hylomorphic view.


The 23 ideas with the same theme [unification of an object by some intrinsic aspect of it]:

No things would be clear to us as entity or relationships unless there existed Number and its essence [Philolaus]
Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki]
Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki]
Things are one numerically in matter, formally in their account, generically in predicates, and by analogy in relations [Aristotle]
Primary things just are what-it-is-to-be-that-thing [Aristotle]
How is man a unity of animal and biped, especially if the Forms of animal and of biped exist? [Aristotle]
Things may be naturally unified because they involve an indivisible process [Aristotle]
A unity may just be a particular, a numerically indivisible thing [Aristotle]
The formal cause may be what unifies a substance [Aristotle]
Aristotle says that the form is what makes an entity what it is [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
Natural objects include animals and their parts, plants, and the simple elements [Aristotle]
Diversity arises from the power of unity [Porphyry]
'Unity' is a particularly difficult word, because things can have hidden unity [Duns Scotus]
Unity by aggregation, order, inherence, composition, and simplicity [Conimbricense, by Pasnau]
Philosophy needs the precision of the unity given by substances [Leibniz]
Identity of a substance is the law of its persistence [Leibniz]
The only unities are simples, or wholes composed of parts [Russell]
Could the same matter have more than one form or principle of unity? [Ayers]
Modal features are not part of entities, because they are accounted for by the entity [Fine,K]
A whole requires some unique relation which binds together all of the parts [Simons]
Structured wholes are united by the teamwork needed for their capacities [Koslicki]
I aim to put the notion of structure or form back into the concepts of part, whole and object [Koslicki]
If a whole is just a structure, a dinner party wouldn't need the guests to turn up [Koslicki]