more on this theme     |     more from this thinker


Single Idea 489

[filed under theme 9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 7. Indiscernible Objects ]

Full Idea

No one thing among things subject to change can possibly be exactly like any other thing, without becoming the same thing.

Gist of Idea

Each thing must be in some way unique

Source

Diogenes (Apoll) (fragments/reports [c.440 BCE], B05), quoted by Simplicius - On Aristotle's 'Physics' 153.8

Book Ref

'Ancilla to the Pre-Socratic Philosophers', ed/tr. Freeman,Kathleen [Harvard 1957], p.88


A Reaction

This is said to be the first ever formulation of the principle of identity of indiscernible.


The 10 ideas from 'fragments/reports'

Diogenes of Apollonia offered the first teleological account of cosmology [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Robinson,TM]
Diogenes of Apollonia was the last natural scientist [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Simplicius]
Perception must be an internal matter, because we can fail to perceive when we are preoccupied [Diogenes of Apollonia, by Theophrastus]
Start a thesis with something undisputable [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Everything is ultimately a variation of one underlying thing [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Plants and animals can only come into existence if something fixes their species [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Things must retain their essential nature during change, or mixing would be impossible [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Each thing must be in some way unique [Diogenes of Apollonia]
Air is divine, because it is in and around everything, and arranges everything [Diogenes of Apollonia]
The older Diogenes said the soul is air, made of the smallest particles [Diogenes of Apollonia]