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Ideas for 'works', 'works' and 'Intro to the Philosophy of Time'

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8 ideas

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 5. Infinite in Nature

8660	There are potential infinities (never running out), but actual infinity is incoherent [Aristotle, by Friend]
	Full Idea: Aristotle developed his own distinction between potential infinity (never running out) and actual infinity (there being a collection of an actual infinite number of things, such as places, times, objects). He decided that actual infinity was incoherent.
	From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by Michèle Friend - Introducing the Philosophy of Mathematics 1.3
	A reaction: Friend argues, plausibly, that this won't do, since potential infinity doesn't make much sense if there is not an actual infinity of things to supply the demand. It seems to just illustrate how boggling and uncongenial infinity was to Aristotle.

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / a. Greek matter

12058	Aristotle's matter can become any other kind of matter [Aristotle, by Wiggins]
	Full Idea: Aristotle's conception of matter permits any kind of matter to become any other kind of matter.
	From: report of Aristotle (works [c.330 BCE]) by David Wiggins - Substance 4.11.2
	A reaction: This is obviously crucial background information when we read Aristotle on matter. Our 92+ elements, and fixed fundamental particles, gives a quite different picture. Aristotle would discuss form and matter quite differently now.

26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 7. Critique of Kinds

10398	Natural kinds are not special; they are just well-defined resemblance collections [Abelard, by King,P]
	Full Idea: In Abelard's view a natural kind is a well-defined collection of things that have the same features, so that natural kinds have no special status, being no more than discrete integral wholes whose principle of membership is similarity.
	From: report of Peter Abelard (works [1135]) by Peter King - Peter Abelard 2
	A reaction: I take a natural kind to be a completely stable and invariant class of things. Presumably this invariance has an underlying explanation, but Abelard seems to take the Humean line that we cannot penetrate beyond the experienced surface.

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 1. Causation

23011	Modern accounts of causation involve either processes or counterfactuals [Baron/Miller]
	Full Idea: The two major contemporary theories of causation are process theories and counterfactual theories. …Process theories treat it as something to be discovered. …Counterfactual theories ignore processes, and treat it in terms of truth and falsity.
	From: Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 6.1)
	A reaction: I take the counterfactual theory to be a specialised branch of the project of analytic metaphysics, which seeks the logical form of causation sentences, using possible worlds semantics. In the real word its processes or nothing.

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 4. Naturalised causation

23013	The main process theory of causation says it is transference of mass, energy, momentum or charge [Baron/Miller]
	Full Idea: According to contemporary process theories of causation it consists of the transference of a 'mark', which is always some conserved quantity. Candidates (from science) are mass, energy, momentum and electric charge.
	From: Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 6.2.2)
	A reaction: Given my commitment to physicalism, this is my preferred theory of causation. It began with the suggestion of energy-transfer, but has broadened into the present idea. It is an updated version of the Newton view, as the meeting of objects.

23014	If causes are processes, what is causation by omission? (Distinguish legal from scientific causes?) [Baron/Miller]
	Full Idea: Process theories of causation face a serious problem, such as killing a plant by failing to water it - a cause by omission. …Defenders of the theory propose two concepts of causation: one for legal and one for scientific contexts.
	From: Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 6.2.3)
	A reaction: Not much of a problem, I think. Clearly the scientific concept has priority. The plant died of dehydration, resulting from the consumption and evaporation of the available water. The human causes of that situation are legion.

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / c. Counterfactual causation

23015	The counterfactual theory of causation handles the problem no matter what causes actually are [Baron/Miller]
	Full Idea: The chief advantage of the counterfactual theory of causation is that it is flexible enough to handle causation no matter what in the world underlies the causal facts in question.
	From: Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 6.3)
	A reaction: It has this advantage because it makes no attempt to explain causation, but merely gives an accurate map of the truth and falsity of causal statements. It describes how we think about causation.

23016	Counterfactual theories struggle with pre-emption by a causal back-up system [Baron/Miller]
	Full Idea: Counterfactual theories of causation have difficulty accommodating pre-emption, which involves the existence of causal back-up systems that undermine counterfactual dependence.
	From: Baron,S/Miller,K (Intro to the Philosophy of Time [2019], 6.5)
	A reaction: E.g. If your stone hadn't broken the window first, my stone would have broken it instead. So in the nearest world the withholding of your stone doesn't save the window.