more from Peter Simons

Single Idea 8981

[catalogued under 7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 2. Processes]

Full Idea

There is arguably a parallel between the mass-count distinction among meanings of nouns and the process-event distinction among meanings of verbs. Processes, like stuff, do not connote criteria for counting, whereas events, like things, do.

Gist of Idea

Maybe processes behave like stuff-nouns, and events like count-nouns

Source

Peter Simons (Events [2003], 6.2)

Book Reference

'The Oxford Handbook of Metaphysics', ed/tr. Loux,M /Zimmerman,D [OUP 2005], p.380


A Reaction

Hm. You can have several processes, and a process can come to an end - but then you can have several ingredients of a cake, and you can run out of one of them. This may be quite a helpful distinction.