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Ideas for 'Principle Doctrines ('Kuriai Doxai') (frags)', 'Letters to Burcher De Volder' and 'Goodbye Descartes'

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2 ideas

9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / b. Individuation by properties
Bodies are combinations of shape, size, resistance and weight [Epicurus]
     Full Idea: Epicurus said that body was conceived as an aggregate of shape and size and resistance and weight.
     From: Epicurus (Principle Doctrines ('Kuriai Doxai') (frags) [c.290 BCE])
     A reaction: [Source Sextus 'Adversus Mathematicos' 10.257] Note that this is how we 'conceive' them. They might be intrinsically different, except that Epicurus is pretty much a phenomenalist.
The law of the series, which determines future states of a substance, is what individuates it [Leibniz]
     Full Idea: That there should be a persistent law of the series, which involves the future states of that which we conceive to be the same, is exactly what I say constitutes it as the same substance.
     From: Gottfried Leibniz (Letters to Burcher De Volder [1706], 1704), quoted by Richard T.W. Arthur - Leibniz 4 'Applying'
     A reaction: The 'law of the series' is a bit dubious, but it is reasonable to say that a substance is individuated by its coherent progress of change over time. Disjointed change would imply an absence of substance. The law of the series is called 'primitive force'.