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Single Idea 18459

[filed under theme 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 1. Unifying an Object / a. Intrinsic unification ]

Full Idea

Diversity is born of the development of the power of unity.

Gist of Idea

Diversity arises from the power of unity

Source

Porphyry (Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind [c.280], 6Enn5 42)

Book Ref

Porphyry: 'Launching Points to the Realm of the Mind', ed/tr. Guthrie,Kenneth [Phanes 1988], p.65


A Reaction

I doubt whether even Porphyry understood this, but we might say that once the principle of unification enters into nature, it will inevitably result in diversity. One all-embracing unity would be indiscernible.


The 23 ideas with the same theme [unification of an object by some intrinsic aspect of it]:

No things would be clear to us as entity or relationships unless there existed Number and its essence [Philolaus]
Plato sees an object's structure as expressible in mathematics [Plato, by Koslicki]
Plato was less concerned than Aristotle with the source of unity in a complex object [Plato, by Koslicki]
Things are one numerically in matter, formally in their account, generically in predicates, and by analogy in relations [Aristotle]
Primary things just are what-it-is-to-be-that-thing [Aristotle]
How is man a unity of animal and biped, especially if the Forms of animal and of biped exist? [Aristotle]
Things may be naturally unified because they involve an indivisible process [Aristotle]
A unity may just be a particular, a numerically indivisible thing [Aristotle]
The formal cause may be what unifies a substance [Aristotle]
Aristotle says that the form is what makes an entity what it is [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
Natural objects include animals and their parts, plants, and the simple elements [Aristotle]
Diversity arises from the power of unity [Porphyry]
'Unity' is a particularly difficult word, because things can have hidden unity [Duns Scotus]
Unity by aggregation, order, inherence, composition, and simplicity [Conimbricense, by Pasnau]
Philosophy needs the precision of the unity given by substances [Leibniz]
Identity of a substance is the law of its persistence [Leibniz]
The only unities are simples, or wholes composed of parts [Russell]
Could the same matter have more than one form or principle of unity? [Ayers]
Modal features are not part of entities, because they are accounted for by the entity [Fine,K]
A whole requires some unique relation which binds together all of the parts [Simons]
Structured wholes are united by the teamwork needed for their capacities [Koslicki]
I aim to put the notion of structure or form back into the concepts of part, whole and object [Koslicki]
If a whole is just a structure, a dinner party wouldn't need the guests to turn up [Koslicki]