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Single Idea 16789

[from 'De Mundo (On the World)' by Thomas Hobbes, in 7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / a. Nature of Being ]

Full Idea

A being cannot naturally go out of existence. For even if a ship or a plank ceases to be a ship or a plank, it never naturally ceases to be a being. For a being, unless it is annihilated, does not cease to be a being. To annihilate is a supernatural task.

Gist of Idea

Only supernatural means could annihilate anything once it had being

Source

Thomas Hobbes (De Mundo (On the World) [1642], 12.5)

Book Reference

Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.679


A Reaction

This idea was becoming an orthodoxy in Hobbes's time, and leads to the various conservation laws in physics.