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Single Idea 19214

[filed under theme 9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 12. Origin as Essential ]

Full Idea

Origin essentialists claim that parental union results in a person, and that person could not have resulted from any other union. However, if the fertilised egg undergoes twinning, at least one of the resultant persons is not the original person.

Gist of Idea

In twinning, one person has the same origin as another person

Source

Trenton Merricks (Propositions [2015], 5.V)

Book Ref

Merricks,Trenton: 'Propositions' [OUP 2015], p.176


A Reaction

Merricks says that therefore that origin could have just produced the second twin, rather than the original person. This is interesting, but doesn't seem to threaten the necessity of origin thesis. Once I'm here, I have that origin, despite my twin.


The 17 ideas from 'Propositions'

Propositions are standardly treated as possible worlds, or as structured [Merricks]
Propositions can be 'about' an entity, but that doesn't make the entity a constituent of it [Merricks]
Propositions are necessary existents which essentially (but inexplicably) represent things [Merricks]
A sentence's truth conditions depend on context [Merricks]
True propositions existed prior to their being thought, and might never be thought [Merricks]
'Snow is white' only contingently expresses the proposition that snow is white [Merricks]
Sentence logic maps truth values; predicate logic maps objects and sets [Merricks]
'Cicero is an orator' represents the same situation as 'Tully is an orator', so they are one proposition [Merricks]
Simple Quantified Modal Logc doesn't work, because the Converse Barcan is a theorem [Merricks]
The Converse Barcan implies 'everything exists necessarily' is a consequence of 'necessarily, everything exists' [Merricks]
The standard view of propositions says they never change their truth-value [Merricks]
Early Russell says a proposition is identical with its truthmaking state of affairs [Merricks]
Unity of the proposition questions: what unites them? can the same constituents make different ones? [Merricks]
We want to explain not just what unites the constituents, but what unites them into a proposition [Merricks]
In twinning, one person has the same origin as another person [Merricks]
I don't accept that if a proposition is directly about an entity, it has a relation to the entity [Merricks]
Arguers often turn the opponent's modus ponens into their own modus tollens [Merricks]