Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'plays (frags)' and 'Causation'

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5 ideas

10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 2. Necessity as Primitive

74	Even God could not undo what has been done [Agathon]
	Full Idea: One thing is denied even to God: to make what has been done undone again.
	From: Agathon (plays (frags) [c.410 BCE]), quoted by Aristotle - Nicomachean Ethics 1139b09
	A reaction: a quotation - cf the Euthyphro Question

14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / g. Causal explanations

8406	Not all explanations are causal, but if a thing can be explained at all, it can be explained causally [Sanford]
	Full Idea: Although not all explanations are causal, anything which can be explained in any way can be explained causally.
	From: David H. Sanford (Causation [1995], p.79)
	A reaction: A nice bold claim with which I am in sympathy, but he would have a struggle proving it. Does this imply that causal explanations are basic, or in some way superior? Note that functional explanations would thus have underlying causal explanations.

26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 5. Infinite in Nature

1748	Archelaus was the first person to say that the universe is boundless [Archelaus, by Diog. Laertius]
	Full Idea: Archelaus was the first person to say that the universe is boundless.
	From: report of Archelaus (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE]) by Diogenes Laertius - Lives of Eminent Philosophers 02.Ar.3

26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 8. Particular Causation / c. Conditions of causation

8407	A totality of conditions necessary for an occurrence is usually held to be jointly sufficient for it [Sanford]
	Full Idea: A totality of conditions necessary for an occurrence is jointly sufficient for it. This is a widely held but controversial view, and it is not a logical truth.
	From: David H. Sanford (Causation [1995], p.82)
	A reaction: This wouldn't work for an impossible occurrence. What are the necessary conditions to produce a large planet made of uranium? One of them would have to be a naturally impossible necessity.

27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 3. Evolution

5989	Archelaus said life began in a primeval slime [Archelaus, by Schofield]
	Full Idea: Archelaus wrote that life on Earth began in a primeval slime.
	From: report of Archelaus (fragments/reports [c.450 BCE]) by Malcolm Schofield - Archelaus
	A reaction: This sounds like a fairly clearcut assertion of the production of life by evolution. Darwin's contribution was to propose the mechanism for achieving it. We should honour the name of Archelaus for this idea.