Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Quining Qualia', 'Commentary on 'Physics'' and 'Substances without Substrata'

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4 ideas

9. Objects / E. Objects over Time / 6. Successive Things

16698	Days exist, and yet they seem to be made up of parts which don't exist [Burley]
	Full Idea: I grant that a successive being is composed out of non-beings, as is clear of a day, which is composed of non-entities. Some part of this day is past and some future, and yet this day is.
	From: Walter Burley (Commentary on 'Physics' [1325], III text 11,f.65rb), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 18.3
	A reaction: The dilemma of Aristotle over time infected the scholastic attempt to give an account of successive entities. A day is a wonderfully elusive entity for a metaphysician.

16690	Unlike permanent things, successive things cannot exist all at once [Burley]
	Full Idea: This is the difference between permanent and successive things: that a permanent thing exists all at once, or at least can exist all at once, whereas it is incompatible with a successive thing to exist all at once.
	From: Walter Burley (Commentary on 'Physics' [1325], III txt 11,f.65rb), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 18.1
	A reaction: Permanent things sound like what are now called 'three-dimensional' objects, but scholastic 'entia successiva' are not the same as spacetime 'worms' or collections of temporal stages.

15. Nature of Minds / B. Features of Minds / 5. Qualia / a. Nature of qualia

6624	Dennett denies the existence of qualia [Dennett, by Lowe]
	Full Idea: Dennett goes to the extreme of denying the existence of qualia altogether.
	From: report of Daniel C. Dennett (Quining Qualia [1988]) by E.J. Lowe - Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind Ch.3
	A reaction: I sympathise with Dennett. Once you know how physically complex and rapid a quale is (about nine billion connections, all firing continuously), the notion that it seems to be some new 'thing', while just being a process, seems fine. Like a waterfall.

19. Language / F. Communication / 6. Interpreting Language / c. Principle of charity

6316	We translate in a way that makes the largest possible number of statements true [Wilson,NL]
	Full Idea: We select as designatum that individual which will make the largest possible number of statements true.
	From: N.L. Wilson (Substances without Substrata [1959]), quoted by Willard Quine - Word and Object II.§13 n
	A reaction: From the Quine's reference, it sounds as if Wilson was the originator of the well-known principle of charity, later taken up by Davidson. If so, he should be famous, because it strikes me as a piece of fundamental and important wisdom.