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Full Idea
A river is not just an event. One would need to specify counterfactual as well as actual boundaries.
Gist of Idea
A river is not just event; it needs actual and counterfactual boundaries
Source
Timothy Williamson (Vagueness [1994], 9.3)
Book Ref
Williamson,Timothy: 'Vagueness' [Routledge 1996], p.264
A Reaction
In other words the same river can change its course a bit, but it can't head off in the opposite direction.
| 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] |