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Single Idea 17692

[filed under theme 26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / e. The One ]

Full Idea

No serious and principled deduction of the phenomena from the One has ever been given, or looks likely to be given.

Gist of Idea

We can't deduce the phenomena from the One

Source

David M. Armstrong (What is a Law of Nature? [1983], 11)

Book Ref

Armstrong,D.M.: 'What is a Law of Nature?' [CUP 1985], p.15

A Reaction

This seems to pick out the best reason why hardly anybody (apart from Jonathan Schaffer) takes the One seriously.

The 23 ideas with the same theme [nature is really a single perfect object]:

1640 The basic Eleatic belief was that all things are one [Xenophanes, by Plato]
424 Reason tells us that all things are one [Heraclitus]
555 People who say that the cosmos is one forget that they must explain movement [Aristotle on Parmenides]
5081 There could be movement within one thing, as there is within water [Aristotle on Parmenides]
1509 The one can't be divisible, because if it was it could be infinitely divided down to nothing [Parmenides, by Simplicius]
20900 Defenders of the One say motion needs the void - but that is not part of Being [Parmenides, by Aristotle]
226 The one is without any kind of motion [Parmenides]
1505 Reason sees reality as one, the senses see it as many [Aristotle on Parmenides]
453 Reality is symmetrical and balanced, like a sphere, with no reason to be greater one way rather than another [Parmenides]
21823 The principle of 'Friendship' in Empedocles is the One, and is bodiless [Empedocles, by Plotinus]
2062 The only movement possible for the One is in space or in alteration [Plato]
24296 The one is completely unmoving, because no types of motion are possible for it [Plato]
24231 The One is timeless, has no being or identity, and cannot be known [Plato]
231 Everything partakes of the One in some way [Plato]
233 Some things do not partake of the One [Plato]
616 It doesn't explain the world to say it was originally all one. How did it acquire diversity? [Aristotle]
21816 Soul is the logos of Nous, just as Nous is the logos of the One [Plotinus]
21814 How can multiple existence arise from the unified One? [Plotinus]
21815 Because the One is immobile, it must create by radiation, light the sun producing light [Plotinus]
24353 We should avoid the idea of the unity of everything, because we then give it godlike authority [Nietzsche]
6406 Reality is one, because plurality implies relations, and they assert a superior unity [Bradley]
17692 We can't deduce the phenomena from the One [Armstrong]
12246 What makes Parmenidean reality a One rather than a Many? [Oderberg]