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Full Idea
Other things get to be unities by dint of the fact that the account [logos] of them is single, ...a thought about which is a single thought, ...which is an indivisible thought, ..which is a thought about a formally or numerically indivisible object.
Gist of Idea
Some things are unified by their account, which rests on a unified thought about the thing
Source
Aristotle (Metaphysics [c.324 BCE], 1052a28)
Book Ref
Aristotle: 'Metaphysics', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,Hugh [Penguin 1998], p.286
A Reaction
This highlights the distinction between things that seem intrinsically unified, and things on which we bestow unity. But note that towards the end of the quotation Aristotle elides the two together.
| 15856 | A thing can become one or many, depending on how we talk about it [Plato] |
| 17839 | Some things are unified by their account, which rests on a unified thought about the thing [Aristotle] |
| 2297 | If I can separate two things in my understanding, then God can separate them in reality [Descartes] |
| 13160 | To exist and be understood, a multitude must first be reduced to a unity [Leibniz] |
| 12746 | We find unity in reason, and unity in perception, but these are not true unity [Leibniz] |
| 12035 | Leibniz bases pure primitive entities on conjunctions of qualitative properties [Leibniz, by Adams,RM] |
| 20362 | We saw unity in things because our ego seemed unified (but now we doubt the ego!) [Nietzsche] |
| 14252 | We should understand identity in terms of the propositions it renders true [Fine,K] |
| 13332 | Hierarchical set membership models objects better than the subset or aggregate relations do [Fine,K] |
| 14928 | Things are abstractions from structures [Ladyman/Ross] |
| 14481 | Wherever an object exists, there are intrinsic properties instantiating every modal profile [Thomasson] |