back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 12024

[from 'The Metaphysics of Modality' by Graeme Forbes, in 9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 3. Unity Problems / d. Coincident objects ]

Full Idea

If we imagine a possible world in which two clocks in a room make one clock from half the parts of each, the judgement 'these two actual clocks could have been a single clock' does not seem wholly false.

Gist of Idea

If we combined two clocks, it seems that two clocks may have become one clock.

Source

Graeme Forbes (The Metaphysics of Modality [1985], 7.4)

Book Reference

Forbes,Graeme: 'The Metaphysics of Modality' [OUP 1985], p.179


A Reaction

You would, of course, have sufficient parts left over to make a second clock, so they look like a destroyed clock, so I don't think I find Forbes's intuition on this one very persuasive.