Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Mahaprajnaparamitashastra', 'Intro to Gdel's Theorems' and 'The Scope and Language of Science'

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2 ideas

8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 4. Formal Relations / c. Ancestral relation
10617 The 'ancestral' of a relation is a new relation which creates a long chain of the original relation [Smith,P]
     Full Idea: The 'ancestral' of a relation is that relation which holds when there is an indefinitely long chain of things having the initial relation.
     From: Peter Smith (Intro to Gödel's Theorems [2007], 23.5)
     A reaction: The standard example is spotting the relation 'ancestor' from the receding relation 'parent'. This is a sort of abstraction derived from a relation which is not equivalent (parenthood being transitive but not reflexive). The idea originated with Frege.
8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 1. Nature of Properties
8461 The category of objects incorporates the old distinction of substances and their modes [Quine]
     Full Idea: The category of objects embraces indiscriminately what would anciently have been distinguished as substances and as modes or states of substances.
     From: Willard Quine (The Scope and Language of Science [1954], §6)
     A reaction: This nicely captures Quine's elimination of properties, by presenting them as inseparable from their objects/substances. Armstrong calls this 'Ostrich Nominalism' (for refusing to address the universals problem) but Quineans are unshaken.