Combining Texts

Ideas for 'A Puzzle Concerning Matter and Form', 'Plurals and Complexes' and 'Treatise of Human Nature'

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2 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 2. Types of Existence

21291	There is no medium state between existence and non-existence [Hume]
	Full Idea: Betwixt unity and number there can be no medium; no more than betwixt existence and non-existence.
	From: David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], I.IV.2)
	A reaction: Just to confirm that, as you would expect, the great empiricist has no time for 'subsistence', or shadows and holes having lower grade existece.

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 11. Ontological Commitment / a. Ontological commitment

10668	We are committed to a 'group' of children, if they are sitting in a circle [Hossack]
	Full Idea: By Quine's test of ontological commitment, if some children are sitting in a circle, no individual child can sit in a circle, so a singular paraphrase will have us committed to a 'group' of children.
	From: Keith Hossack (Plurals and Complexes [2000], 2)
	A reaction: Nice of why Quine is committed to the existence of sets. Hossack offers plural quantification as a way of avoiding commitment to sets. But is 'sitting in a circle' a real property (in the Shoemaker sense)? I can sit in a circle without realising it.