Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Every Thing Must Go', 'Critique of Pure Reason' and 'Letter to Herodotus'

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2 ideas

7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 1. Nature of Change
The totality is complete, so there is no room for it to change, and nothing extraneous to change it [Epicurus]
     Full Idea: The totality of things has always been just like it is now and always will be. For there is nothing for it to change into. For there exists nothing in addition to the totality, which could enter into it and produce the change.
     From: Epicurus (Letter to Herodotus [c.293 BCE], 39)
     A reaction: This smacks of the sort of dubious arguments that the medieval theologians fell in love with. I never thought I'd say this, but I think Epicurus needs a comprehensive course in set theory before he makes remarks like this.
7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 2. Processes
Any process can be described as transfer of measurable information [Ladyman/Ross]
     Full Idea: Reference to transfer of some (in principle) quantitatively measurable information is a highly general way of describing any process.
     From: J Ladyman / D Ross (Every Thing Must Go [2007], 4.3)
     A reaction: That does not, of course, mean that that is what a process is. A waterfall is an archetypal process, but it is a bit more than a bunch of information. Actually its complexity may place its information beyond measurement.