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Ideas for 'On the Philosophy of Logic', 'Physics' and 'Essays on Active Powers 1: Active power'

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6 ideas

8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 1. Nature of Relations

16656	The separation from here to there is not the same as the separation from there to here [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: Even though two separated things have a single interval between them, still the separation from here to there is not one and the same as the separation from there to here.
	From: Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 202b19)
	A reaction: His example is the road from Athens to Thebes. Since we tend to quantify distances between places more than Aristotle did, we are less impressed by this distinction, which seems a bit subjective. Aristotle seems to be thinking of vectors.

8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 8. Properties as Modes

16644	The features of a thing (whether quality or quantity) are inseparable from their subjects [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: It is impossible to separate [affections/accidents], both in respect of quantity and of quality - of quantity, because there is no minimum magnitude, and of quality, because affections are inseparable.
	From: Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 188a11)
	A reaction: This is an aspect of his famous view that universals, if there are such, are inherent in objects, and can't float free. It was important for scholastic philosophers, who need accidents to float free for the doctrine of Transubstantiation.

8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 1. Powers

5117	Heavy and light are defined by their tendency to move down or up [Aristotle]
	Full Idea: It is the nature of light and heavy things to tend in certain directions, and this is what it is to be light or heavy; to be light is defined by an upwards tendency, and to be heavy is defined by a downwards tendency.
	From: Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 255b14)
	A reaction: The discredited 'teleological' view of gravity, and yet if we define 'heavy' in Newtonian terms we are in danger of circularity, and of proposing laws which are bafflingly imposed from outside. Hence the 'New Essentialists' prefer Aristotle's view.

8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 2. Powers as Basic

23664	Powers are quite distinct and simple, and so cannot be defined [Reid]
	Full Idea: Power is a thing so much of its own kind, and so simple in its nature, as to admit of no logical definition.
	From: Thomas Reid (Essays on Active Powers 1: Active power [1788], 1)
	A reaction: True. And this makes Powers ideally suited for the role of primitives in a metaphysics of nature.

23669	Thinkers say that matter has intrinsic powers, but is also passive and acted upon [Reid]
	Full Idea: Those philosophers who attribute to matter the power of gravitation, and other active powers, teach us, at the same time, that matter is a substance altogether inert, and merely passive; …that those powers are impressed on it by some external cause.
	From: Thomas Reid (Essays on Active Powers 1: Active power [1788], 6)
	A reaction: This shows the dilemma of the period, when 'laws of nature' were imposed on passive matter by God, and yet gravity and magnetism appeared as inherent properties of matter.

8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 3. Powers as Derived

23666	It is obvious that there could not be a power without a subject which possesses it [Reid]
	Full Idea: It is evident that a power is a quality, and cannot exist without a subject to which it belongs. That power may exist without any being or subject to which that power may be attributed, is an absurdity, shocking to every man of common understanding.
	From: Thomas Reid (Essays on Active Powers 1: Active power [1788], 1)
	A reaction: This is understandble in the 18th C, when free-floating powers were inconceivable, but now that we have fields and plasmas and whatnot, we can't rule out pure powers as basic. However, I incline to agree with Reid. Matter is active.