Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Changes in Events and Changes in Things', 'Aristotle on Friendship' and 'Lewis on Perdurance versus Endurance'

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4 ideas

7. Existence / B. Change in Existence / 1. Nature of Change

15541	Maybe particles are unchanging, and intrinsic change in things is their rearrangement [Lowe, by Lewis]
	Full Idea: Lowe's solution the 'temporary intrinsics' problem is that particles have no temporary intrinsic properties; they may be safely supposed to endure, and large things consist of those enduring particles, undergoing rearrangement but no intrinsic change.
	From: report of E.J. Lowe (Lewis on Perdurance versus Endurance [1987]) by David Lewis - Rearrangement of Particles II
	A reaction: A mere rearrangement of particles doesn't sound the same as a change in properties, which must involve causal powers in some way.

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.

23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / d. Friendship

2685	The Greek 'philia' covers all good and fruitful relationships [Cooper,JM]
	Full Idea: The Greek 'philia' is much wider than our "friendship"; it includes family relationships, and business relationships and membership of institutions.
	From: John M. Cooper (Aristotle on Friendship [1977], p.301)

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?