more from this thinker | more from this text
Full Idea
That will be the same river which flows from one and the same fountain, whether the same water, or other water, or something other than water, flow thence.
Gist of Idea
It is the same river if it has the same source, no matter what flows in it
Source
Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore (Elements, First Section) [1655], 2.11.07)
Book Ref
Hobbes,Thomas: 'Metaphysical Writings', ed/tr. Calkins,Mary Whiton [Open Court 1905], p.86
A Reaction
This makes the source the one necessity for a river. I think the end matters too. If the Thames reversed direction, and flowed into Wales, it would not be the Thames any more.
| 11091 | You can bathe in the same river twice, but not in the same river stage [Quine on Heraclitus] |
| 427 | It is not possible to step twice into the same river [Heraclitus] |
| 579 | Cratylus said you couldn't even step into the same river once [Cratylus, by Aristotle] |
| 16793 | A thing is (less properly) the same over time if each part is succeeded by another [Buridan] |
| 17257 | It is the same river if it has the same source, no matter what flows in it [Hobbes] |
| 21303 | We accept the identity of a river through change, because it is the river's nature [Hume] |
| 15256 | Humeans cannot step in the same river twice, because they cannot strictly form the concept of 'river' [Harré/Madden] |
| 3351 | One can step into the same river twice, but not into the same water [Benardete,JA] |
| 21632 | A river is not just event; it needs actual and counterfactual boundaries [Williamson] |