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Single Idea 3119

[from 'A Slim Book about Narrow Content' by Gabriel M.A. Segal, in 18. Thought / C. Content / 10. Causal Semantics ]

Full Idea

We can't define mass in terms of its causal powers because massive objects do different things in different physical systems. …What an object (or concept) with a given property does depends on what it interacts with.

Gist of Idea

Even 'mass' cannot be defined in causal terms

Source

Gabriel M.A. Segal (A Slim Book about Narrow Content [2000], 4.1)

Book Reference

Segal,Gabriel M.A.: 'A Slim Book about Narrow Content' [MIT 2000], p.97


A Reaction

This leaves an epistemological problem, that we believe in mass, but can only get at it within a particular gravitational or inertial system. Don't give up on ontology at this point.