Combining Texts

Ideas for 'poems', 'The Principles of Mathematics' and 'Metaphysics'

unexpand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these texts

display all the ideas for this combination of texts

---

5 ideas

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / a. Nature of Being

11010	Being is what belongs to every possible object of thought [Russell]
	Full Idea: Being is that which belongs to every conceivable, to every possible object of thought.
	From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903]), quoted by Stephen Read - Thinking About Logic Ch.5
	A reaction: I take Russell's (or anyone's) attempt to distinguish two different senses of the word 'being' or 'exist' to be an umitigated metaphysical disaster.

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 3. Being / b. Being and existence

14161	Many things have being (as topics of propositions), but may not have actual existence [Russell]
	Full Idea: Numbers, the Homeric gods, relations, chimeras and four-dimensional space all have being, for if they were not entities of a kind, we could not make propositions about them. Existence, on the contrary, is the prerogative of some only amongst the beings.
	From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §427)
	A reaction: This is the analytic philosophy account of being (a long way from Heidegger). Contemporary philosophy seems to be full of confusions on this, with many writers claiming existence for things which should only be awarded 'being' status.

7. Existence / A. Nature of Existence / 6. Criterion for Existence

14173	What exists has causal relations, but non-existent things may also have them [Russell]
	Full Idea: It would seem that whatever exists at any part of time has causal relations. This is not a distinguishing characteristic of what exists, since we have seen that two non-existent terms may be cause and effect.
	From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §449)
	A reaction: Presumably he means that the non-existence of something (such as a safety rail) might the cause of an event. This is a problem for Alexander's Principle, in Idea 3534. I think we could redescribe his problem cases, to save Alexander.

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 8. Stuff / a. Pure stuff

16771	A composite is a true unity if all of its parts fall under one essence [Scheibler]
	Full Idea: A composite entity is a unum per se if the partial entities that are in it are contained under one common essence. …In water, all those parts are contained under one essence of water.
	From: Chistoph Scheibler (Metaphysics [1650], I.4.1 n9), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671
	A reaction: Water mixed with wine is said to be an 'ens per accidens'. This is an unusual but possible view, that all the water there is is a single thing, united by its compositional essence. When we talk about 'water', we include possible water, and past water.

7. Existence / E. Categories / 3. Proposed Categories

14163	Four classes of terms: instants, points, terms at instants only, and terms at instants and points [Russell]
	Full Idea: Among terms which appear to exist, there are, we may say, four great classes: 1) instants, 2) points, 3) terms which occupy instants but not points, 4) terms which occupy both points and instants. Analysis cannot explain 'occupy'.
	From: Bertrand Russell (The Principles of Mathematics [1903], §437)
	A reaction: This is a massively reductive scientific approach to categorising existence. Note that it homes in on 'terms', which seems a rather linguistic approach, although Russell is cautious about such things.