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Full Idea
Where the objects are in their nature changeable and inconstant, we admit of a more sudden transition. The nature of a river consists in the motion and change of parts. What is expected appears of less moment than what is unusual and extraordinary.
Gist of Idea
We accept the identity of a river through change, because it is the river's nature
Source
David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.6)
Book Ref
Hume,David: 'A Treatise of Human Nature', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1978], p.258
A Reaction
Aha! Little does Hume realise how Aristotelian he is! Aristotle may have a more objective view of the 'nature' of a thing, but making inferences about identity over time from a thing's essential nature is pure Aristotle.
| 11091 | You can bathe in the same river twice, but not in the same river stage [Quine on Heraclitus] |
| 427 | It is not possible to step twice into the same river [Heraclitus] |
| 579 | Cratylus said you couldn't even step into the same river once [Cratylus, by Aristotle] |
| 16793 | A thing is (less properly) the same over time if each part is succeeded by another [Buridan] |
| 17257 | It is the same river if it has the same source, no matter what flows in it [Hobbes] |
| 21303 | We accept the identity of a river through change, because it is the river's nature [Hume] |
| 15256 | Humeans cannot step in the same river twice, because they cannot strictly form the concept of 'river' [Harré/Madden] |
| 3351 | One can step into the same river twice, but not into the same water [Benardete,JA] |
| 21632 | A river is not just event; it needs actual and counterfactual boundaries [Williamson] |