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Single Idea 8977

[filed under theme 7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 4. Events / c. Reduction of events ]

Full Idea

Since some tautologously universal properties such as self-identity or being such that 2+2=4 apply to all things at all times, that is stretching Kim's events too far. Candidate properties need to be realistically restricted, and it is unclear how.

Gist of Idea

Since properties like self-identity and being 2+2=4 are timeless, Kim must restrict his properties

Source

comment on Jaegwon Kim (Events as property exemplifications [1976]) by Peter Simons - Events 2.1

Book Ref

'The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics', ed/tr. Loux,M /Zimmerman,D [OUP 2005], p.366


A Reaction

You could deploy Schoemaker's concept of natural properties in terms of the source of causal powers, but the problem would be that you were probably hoping to then use Kim's events to define causation. Answer: treat causation as the primitive.


The 19 ideas with the same theme [explaining happenings in terms of another mode of existence]:

Events are just interpretations of groups of appearances [Nietzsche]
Explaining events just by bodies can't explain two events identical in space-time [Quine]
A physical event is any change of distribution of energy [Ellis]
Events are fast changes which are of interest to us [O'Connor]
Events are made of other things, and are not fundamental to ontology [Bennett]
The claim that events are individuated by their causal relations to other events is circular [Lowe on Davidson]
How fine-grained Kim's events are depends on how finely properties are individuated [Kim, by Schaffer,J]
Events are composed of an object with an attribute at a time [Kim, by Simons]
Events cannot be merely ordered triples, but must specify the link between the elements [Kim, by Simons]
If events are ordered triples of items, such things seem to be sets, and hence abstract [Simons on Kim]
Since properties like self-identity and being 2+2=4 are timeless, Kim must restrict his properties [Simons on Kim]
Kim's theory results in too many events [Simons on Kim]
For Kim, events are exemplifications of properties by objects at particular times [Kim, by Psillos]
The induction problem fades if you work with things, rather than with events [Harré/Madden]
An event is a property of a unique space-time region [Lewis]
An event is a change in or to an object [Lombard, by Mumford]
Events are trope-sequences, in which tropes replace one another [Campbell,K]
Maybe an event is the exemplification of a property at a time [Lowe]
Events are changes in the properties of or relations between things [Lowe]