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3 ideas
6735 | All motion is relative, so a single body cannot move [Berkeley] |
Full Idea: There cannot be any motion other than relative; …if there was one only body in being it could not possibly move. | |
From: George Berkeley (The Principles of Human Knowledge [1710], §112) | |
A reaction: This seems to agree with with Leibniz in denying the Newton-Clarke idea of absolute space. See Idea 2100. Suppose there were two bodies racing towards one another, when one of them suddenly vanished? |
7551 | Matter is a logical construction [Russell] |
Full Idea: We must regard matter as a logical construction. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], p.132) | |
A reaction: A logical construction is a fancy way of saying a best explanation (but with Ockham's Razor hanging over it). A key component missing from Russell's account is that we can directly experience matter, because we are made of it. |
7547 | Matter requires a division into time-corpuscles as well as space-corpuscles [Russell] |
Full Idea: A true theory of matter requires a division of things into time-corpuscles as well as space-corpuscles. | |
From: Bertrand Russell (The Ultimate Constituents of Matter [1915], p.125) | |
A reaction: The division of matter in space seems decidable by physicists, but the division in time seems a bit arbitrary (unless it is quanta of time?). Russell focuses on observable qualities, but are there also intrinsic qualities? |