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Single Idea 22628

[filed under theme 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 2. Substance / d. Substance defined ]

Full Idea

Something must exist, then, and have qualities, without being itself either a quality or a relation. And this is Substance.

Gist of Idea

Substance has to exist, with no intrinsic qualities or relations

Source

J.M.E. McTaggart (The Nature of Existence vol.1 [1921], §67), quoted by R.D. Ingthorsson - A Powerful Particulars View of Causation 7.2

Book Ref

'Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Time', ed/tr. Callender,Craig [OUP 2013], p.109


A Reaction

Ingthorsson quotes this as 'the most extreme analytic view', which is a long way from the Aristotelian view. This is the implausible bare substrate.


The 11 ideas from J.M.E. McTaggart

Substance has to exist, with no intrinsic qualities or relations [McTaggart]
How could change consist of a conjunction of changeless facts? [McTaggart, by Le Poidevin]
A-series time positions are contradictory, and yet all events occupy all of them! [McTaggart, by Le Poidevin]
Time involves change, only the A-series explains change, but it involves contradictions, so time is unreal [McTaggart, by Lowe]
The B-series can be inferred from the A-series, but not the other way round [McTaggart, by Le Poidevin]
A-series uses past, present and future; B-series uses 'before' and 'after' [McTaggart, by Girle]
A-series expressions place things in time, and their truth varies; B-series is relative, and always true [McTaggart, by Lowe]
Change is not just having two different qualities at different points in some series [McTaggart]
There could be no time if nothing changed [McTaggart]
For McTaggart time is seen either as fixed, or as relative to events [McTaggart, by Ayer]
The B-series must depend on the A-series, because change must be explained [McTaggart, by Le Poidevin]