Combining Texts

Ideas for 'works', 'In Defence of Convention T' and 'Nature's Metaphysics'

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7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence
If all existents are causally active, that excludes abstracta and causally isolated objects [Bird]
     Full Idea: If one says that 'everything that exists is causally active', that rules out abstracta (notably sets and numbers), and it rules out objects that are causally isolated.
     From: Alexander Bird (Nature's Metaphysics [2007], 5.5)
     A reaction: I like the principle. I take abstracta to be brain events, so they are causally active, within highly refined and focused brains, and if your physics is built on the notion of fields then I would think a 'causally isolated' object incoherent.