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Ideas of Walter Burley, by Text

[English, 1275 - 1345, Scholastic theologican who spent 17 years in Paris.]

1325	Commentary on 'Physics'

III text 11,f.65rb	p.386	16698	Days exist, and yet they seem to be made up of parts which don't exist
			Full Idea: I grant that a successive being is composed out of non-beings, as is clear of a day, which is composed of non-entities. Some part of this day is past and some future, and yet this day is.
			From: Walter Burley (Commentary on 'Physics' [1325], III text 11,f.65rb), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 18.3
			A reaction: The dilemma of Aristotle over time infected the scholastic attempt to give an account of successive entities. A day is a wonderfully elusive entity for a metaphysician.

III txt 11,f.65rb	p.375	16690	Unlike permanent things, successive things cannot exist all at once
			Full Idea: This is the difference between permanent and successive things: that a permanent thing exists all at once, or at least can exist all at once, whereas it is incompatible with a successive thing to exist all at once.
			From: Walter Burley (Commentary on 'Physics' [1325], III txt 11,f.65rb), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 18.1
			A reaction: Permanent things sound like what are now called 'three-dimensional' objects, but scholastic 'entia successiva' are not the same as spacetime 'worms' or collections of temporal stages.

1330

De formis

pars post p.65	p.462	16719	The primary qualities are mixed to cause secondary qualities
			Full Idea: Secondary qualities are caused by a mixture of primary qualities.
			From: Walter Burley (De formis [1330], pars post p.65), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 21.2
			A reaction: Like paint. He probably has in mind hot, cold, wet and dry as the primary qualities.