Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Changes in Events and Changes in Things', 'A priori/A posteriori' and 'Summula philosophiae naturalis'

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6 ideas

7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 8. Facts / b. Types of fact

15201	That Queen Anne is dead is a 'general fact', not a fact about Queen Anne [Prior,AN]
	Full Idea: The fact that Queen Anne has been dead for some years is not, in the strict sense of 'about', a fact about Queen Anne; it is not a fact about anyone or anything - it is a general fact.
	From: Arthur N. Prior (Changes in Events and Changes in Things [1968], p.13), quoted by Robin Le Poidevin - Past, Present and Future of Debate about Tense 1 b
	A reaction: He distinguishes 'general facts' (states of affairs, I think) from 'individual facts', involving some specific object. General facts seem to be what are expressed by negative existential truths, such as 'there is no Loch Ness Monster'. Useful.

7. Existence / E. Categories / 5. Category Anti-Realism

16608	Ockham was an anti-realist about the categories [William of Ockham, by Pasnau]
	Full Idea: Ockham is the scholastic paradigm of anti-realism with respect to the categories.
	From: report of William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 05.3
	A reaction: These are the ten categories mentioned in Aristotle's book 'Categories'.

9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 4. Quantity of an Object

16599	Ockham says matter must be extended, so we don't need Quantity [William of Ockham, by Pasnau]
	Full Idea: Ockham regards Quantity as an entirely superfluous ontological category, …because matter is intrinsically extended.
	From: report of William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 04.4

16681	Matter gets its quantity from condensation and rarefaction, which is just local motion [William of Ockham]
	Full Idea: Matter is made to have a greater or lesser quantity not through its receiving any absolute accident, but through condensation and rarefaction alone. Parts come more or less close together, which can happen with local motion.
	From: William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320], I.13), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 15.1
	A reaction: This is Ockham at his most modern, rejecting the odd idea of Quantity in favour of a modern corpuscular view of the mere motions of matter.

12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 10. A Priori as Subjective

3913	Maybe imagination is the source of a priori justification [Casullo]
	Full Idea: Some maintain that experiments in imagination are the source of a priori justification.
	From: Albert Casullo (A priori/A posteriori [1992], p.1)
	A reaction: What else could assessments of possibility and necessity be based on except imagination?

27. Natural Reality / D. Time / 2. Passage of Time / e. Tensed (A) series

22899	'Thank goodness that's over' is not like 'thank goodness that happened on Friday' [Prior,AN]
	Full Idea: One says 'thank goodness that is over', ..and it says something which it is impossible which any use of any tenseless copula with a date should convey. It certainly doesn't mean the same as 'thank goodness that occured on Friday June 15th 1954'.
	From: Arthur N. Prior (Changes in Events and Changes in Things [1968]), quoted by Adrian Bardon - Brief History of the Philosophy of Time 4 'Pervasive'
	A reaction: [Ref uncertain] This seems to be appealing to ordinary usage, in which tenses have huge significance. If we take time (with its past, present and future) as primitive, then tenses can have full weight. Did tenses mean anything at all to Einstein?