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Single Idea 16962

[filed under theme 27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 3. Points in Space ]

Full Idea

Whitehead tried to avoid points, and make do with extended regions and sets of regions.

Gist of Idea

Whitehead replaced points with extended regions

Source

report of Alfred North Whitehead (Process and Reality [1929]) by Willard Quine - Existence and Quantification p.93

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.93

The 13 ideas with the same theme [minimal units that make up space]:

10863 Cantor proved that three dimensions have the same number of points as one dimension [Cantor, by Clegg]
16962 Whitehead replaced points with extended regions [Whitehead, by Quine]
14160 Space is the extension of 'point', and aggregates of points seem necessary for geometry [Russell]
18970 The concept of a 'point' makes no sense without the idea of absolute position [Quine]
17811 The natural conception of points ducks the problem of naming or constructing each point [Kreisel]
17707 We should regard space as made up of many tiny pieces [Feynman, by Mares]
18257 Why should the limit of measurement be points, not intervals? [Dummett]
3334 Rationalists see points as fundamental, but empiricists prefer regions [Benardete,JA]
22922 We can identify unoccupied points in space, so they must exist [Le Poidevin]
22924 If spatial points exist, then they must be stationary, by definition [Le Poidevin]
8269 Points are limits of parts of space, so parts of space cannot be aggregates of them [Lowe]
4227 Surfaces, lines and points are not, strictly speaking, parts of space, but 'limits', which are abstract [Lowe]
17708 Maybe space has points, but processes always need regions with a size [Mares]