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Single Idea 8443

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 12. Essential Parts ]

Full Idea

Mereological essentialism says that nothing else could have been the unique entity composed of certain parts except the very thing that is composed of those parts.

Gist of Idea

Mereological essentialism says an entity must have exactly those parts

Source

Ernest Sosa (Varieties of Causation [1980], 2)

Book Ref

'Causation', ed/tr. Sosa,E. /Tooley,M. [OUP 1993], p.237

A Reaction

This sounds initially implausible. It means the ship of Theseus ceases to be that ship if you change a single nail of it. Whether we say that seems optional, but if we do, it leads to the collaps of all our normal understanding of identity.

The 20 ideas from Ernest Sosa

8876 Much propositional knowledge cannot be formulated, as in recognising a face [Sosa]
8877 We can't attain a coherent system by lopping off any beliefs that won't fit [Sosa]
8878 It is acceptable to say a supermarket door 'knows' someone is approaching [Sosa]
8879 Fully comprehensive beliefs may not be knowledge [Sosa]
8880 In reducing arithmetic to self-evident logic, logicism is in sympathy with rationalism [Sosa]
8881 Most of our knowledge has insufficient sensory support [Sosa]
8882 Perception may involve thin indexical concepts, or thicker perceptual concepts [Sosa]
8883 Do beliefs only become foundationally justified if we fully attend to features of our experience? [Sosa]
8884 The phenomenal concept of an eleven-dot pattern does not include the concept of eleven [Sosa]
8885 Some features of a thought are known directly, but others must be inferred [Sosa]
8798 Vision causes and justifies beliefs; but to some extent the cause is the justification [Sosa]
8799 If mental states are not propositional, they are logically dumb, and cannot be foundations [Sosa]
8794 There are very few really obvious truths, and not much can be proved from them [Sosa]
8795 Mental states cannot be foundational if they are not immune to error [Sosa]
8796 A single belief can trail two regresses, one terminating and one not [Sosa]
8797 The negation of all my beliefs about my current headache would be fully coherent [Sosa]
8442 What law would explain causation in the case of causing a table to come into existence? [Sosa]
8443 Mereological essentialism says an entity must have exactly those parts [Sosa]
8444 Where is the necessary causation in the three people being tall making everybody tall? [Sosa]
8445 The necessitated is not always a result or consequence of the necessitator [Sosa]