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Single Idea 17583

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / L. Paradox / 6. Paradoxes in Language / b. The Heap paradox ('Sorites') ]

Full Idea

Fortunately ....there are no heaps.

Gist of Idea

There are no heaps

Source

Peter van Inwagen (Material Beings [1990], 18)

Book Ref

Inwagen,Peter van: 'Material Beings' [Cornell 1995], p.229

A Reaction

This is the nihilist view of (inorganic) physical objects. If a wild view solves all sorts of problems, one should take it serious. It is why I take reductive physicalism about the mind seriously. (Well, it's true, actually)

The 6 ideas with the same theme [problem with defining what makes a heap]:

1512 Zeno is wrong that one grain of millet makes a sound; why should one grain achieve what the whole bushel does? [Aristotle on Zeno of Elea]
6008 Removing one grain doesn't destroy a heap, so a heap can't be destroyed [Eubulides, by Dancy,R]
8194 Surely there is no exact single grain that brings a heap into existence [Dummett]
17583 There are no heaps [Inwagen]
9117 The smallest heap has four objects: three on the bottom, one on the top [Hart,WD, by Sorensen]
21599 A sorites stops when it collides with an opposite sorites [Williamson]