more from Donald Davidson

Single Idea 8278

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

Full Idea

Davidson has urged that events are individuated by the causal relations which they bear to one another, in accordance with the principle that events are identical just in case they have the same causes and effects. But the principle is viciously circular.

Gist of Idea

The claim that events are individuated by their causal relations to other events is circular

Source

comment on Donald Davidson (The Individuation of Events [1969]) by E.J. Lowe - The Possibility of Metaphysics 7.4

Book Reference

Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.163


A Reaction

You wouldn't want to identify a person just by their relationships, even though those will certainly be unique. Generally it is what I am (right now) naming as the Functional Fallacy: believing that specifying the function of x explains x.