Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'talk', 'Aristotle on Substance' and 'Virtue Theory and Abortion'

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5 ideas

9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 3. Matter of an Object

16083	Aristotelian matter seriously threatens the intrinsic unity and substantiality of its object [Gill,ML]
	Full Idea: On the interpretation of Aristotelian matter that I shall propose, matter seriously threatens the intrinsic unity, and hence the substantiality, of the object to which it contributes.
	From: Mary Louise Gill (Aristotle on Substance [1989], Intro)
	A reaction: Presumably the thought is that if an object is form+matter (hylomorphism), then forms are essentially unified, but matter is essentially unified and sloppy.

14. Science / C. Induction / 3. Limits of Induction

7295	Maybe induction is only reliable IF reality is stable [Mitchell,A]
	Full Idea: Maybe we should say that IF regularities are stable, only then is induction a reliable procedure.
	From: Alistair Mitchell (talk [2006]), quoted by PG - Db (ideas)
	A reaction: This seems to me a very good proposal. In a wildly unpredictable reality, it is hard to see how anyone could learn from experience, or do any reasoning about the future. Natural stability is the axiom on which induction is built.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 1. Virtue Theory / b. Basis of virtue

20195	Eudaimonia first; virtue is a trait which promotes it; right acts are what virtues produce [Hursthouse, by Zagzebski]
	Full Idea: Hursthouse defines a virtue as a trait humans need to flourish or live well, ...so 'eudaimonia' is conceptually foundational, the concept of virtue is then derived, and the concept of a right act is derived from that.
	From: report of Rosalind Hursthouse (Virtue Theory and Abortion [1992], p.226) by Linda Trinkaus Zagzebski - Virtues of the Mind II.1
	A reaction: Zagzebski is mapping different types of virtue theory. The purest theories say that virtue is intrinsically good. The others seem to be instrumental, in varying degrees. Zagzebski makes good motivations prior.

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / b. Prime matter

17006	Prime matter has no place in Aristotle's theories, and passages claiming it are misread [Gill,ML]
	Full Idea: I argue that prime matter has no place in Aristotle's elemental theory. ..References to prime matter are found in Aristotle's work because his theory was thought to need the doctrine. If I am right, these passages will all admit of another interpretation.
	From: Mary Louise Gill (Aristotle on Substance [1989], App)
	A reaction: If correct, this strikes me as important for the history of ideas, because scholastics got themselves in a right tangle over prime matter. See Pasnau on it. It pushed the 17th century into corpuscularianism.

16093	Prime matter is actually nothing and potentially everything (or potentially an element) [Gill,ML]
	Full Idea: Prime matter is supposed to be actually nothing and potentially everything or, at any rate, potentially the simplest bodies - earth, water, air and fire.
	From: Mary Louise Gill (Aristotle on Substance [1989], Ch.1)
	A reaction: The view that the four elements turn out to be prime matter is distinctive of Gill's approach. Prime matter sounds like quark soup in the early universe.