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Single Idea 16582

[filed under theme 10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 4. Conceivable as Possible / b. Conceivable but impossible ]

Full Idea

Even if we can feign in our mind that a point swells to a huge bulk and then contracts to a point - imagining something's made from nothing (ex nihilo), and nothing's made from something - still we cannot comprehend how this could be done in nature.

Gist of Idea

We can imagine a point swelling and contracting - but not how this could be done

Source

Thomas Hobbes (De Corpore (Elements, First Section) [1655], 2.08.20)

Book Ref

Hobbes,Thomas: 'Metaphysical Writings', ed/tr. Calkins,Mary Whiton [Open Court 1905], p.66

A Reaction

[compressed] Pasnau notes that this offers two sorts of conceivability, of something happening, and of a reason for it happening. A really nice idea, significant (I think) for scientific essentialists, who say possibilities are fewer than you think.

The 40 ideas from 'De Corpore (Elements, First Section)'

17233 Particulars contain universal things [Hobbes]
17234 Motion is losing one place and acquiring another [Hobbes]
17235 A cause is the complete sum of the features which necessitate the effect [Hobbes]
17236 Words are not for communication, but as marks for remembering what we have learned [Hobbes]
17238 Science aims to show causes and generation of things [Hobbes]
17237 Definitions of things that are caused must express their manner of generation [Hobbes]
17239 Definition is resolution of names into successive genera, and finally the difference [Hobbes]
17241 A defined name should not appear in the definition [Hobbes]
17240 Definitions are the first step in philosophy [Hobbes]
17242 'Petitio principii' is reusing the idea to be defined, in disguised words [Hobbes]
17243 Past times can't exist anywhere, apart from in our memories [Hobbes]
17244 To make a whole, parts needn't be put together, but can be united in the mind [Hobbes]
17245 A part of a part is a part of a whole [Hobbes]
14960 Bodies are independent of thought, and coincide with part of space [Hobbes]
16670 Accidents are just modes of thinking about bodies [Hobbes]
16621 Accidents are not parts of bodies (like blood in a cloth); they have accidents as things have a size [Hobbes]
17246 Some accidental features are permanent, unless the object perishes [Hobbes]
17247 The only generalities or universals are names or signs [Hobbes]
17248 If a whole body is moved, its parts must move with it [Hobbes]
17250 If you separate the two places of one thing, you will also separate the thing [Hobbes]
17249 If you separated two things in the same place, you would also separate the places [Hobbes]
16582 We can imagine a point swelling and contracting - but not how this could be done [Hobbes]
17251 The feature which picks out or names a thing is usually called its 'essence' [Hobbes]
16600 Prime matter is body considered with mere size and extension, and potential [Hobbes]
17252 Acting on a body is either creating or destroying a property in it [Hobbes]
17253 Change is nothing but movement [Hobbes]
16734 The complete power of an event is just the aggregate of the qualities that produced it [Hobbes]
17254 An effect needs a sufficient and necessary cause [Hobbes]
17255 Two bodies differ when (at some time) you can say something of one you can't say of the other [Hobbes]
16790 A body is always the same, whether the parts are together or dispersed [Hobbes]
17257 It is the same river if it has the same source, no matter what flows in it [Hobbes]
12853 Some individuate the ship by unity of matter, and others by unity of form [Hobbes]
17256 If a new ship were made of the discarded planks, would two ships be numerically the same? [Hobbes]
16794 As an infant, Socrates was not the same body, but he was the same human being [Hobbes]
17258 If we just say one, one, one, one, we don't know where we have got to [Hobbes]
2948 Sensation is merely internal motion of the sentient being [Hobbes]
17259 'Force' is the quantity of movement imposed on something [Hobbes]
17260 Imagination is just weakened sensation [Hobbes]
17261 Apart from pleasure and pain, the only emotions are appetite and aversion [Hobbes]
19373 A 'conatus' is an initial motion, experienced by us as desire or aversion [Hobbes, by Arthur,R]