11965
|
Could possible Adam gradually transform into Noah, and vice versa? [Chisholm]
|
|
Full Idea:
If Adam lived for 931 years in a possible world, instead of his actual 930 years, ..then Adam and Noah could gradually exchange their ages and other properties...and we could trace Adam in a world back to the actual Noah, and vice versa.
|
|
From:
Roderick Chisholm (Identity through Possible Worlds [1967], p.81-2)
|
|
A reaction:
[very compressed] Chisholm was one of the first to raise this problem for possible worlds, though it had been Quine's objection to modal logic all along. Only Adam having essential properties seems to stop this slippery slope, says Chisholm.
|
19678
|
Strong foundationalism needs strict inferences; weak version has induction, explanation, probability [Kvanvig]
|
|
Full Idea:
Strong foundationalists require truth-preserving inferential links between the foundations and what the foundations support, while weaker versions allow weaker connections, such as inductive support, or best explanation, or probabilistic support.
|
|
From:
Jonathan Kvanvig (Epistemic Justification [2011], II)
|
|
A reaction:
[He cites Alston 1989] Personally I'm a coherentist about justification, but I'm a fan of best explanation, so I'd vote for that. It's just that best explanation is not a very foundationalist sort of concept. Actually, the strong version is absurd.
|
12709
|
Motion is not absolute, but consists in relation [Leibniz]
|
|
Full Idea:
In reality motion is not something absolute, but consists in relation.
|
|
From:
Gottfried Leibniz (On Motion [1677], A6.4.1968), quoted by Daniel Garber - Leibniz:Body,Substance,Monad 3
|
|
A reaction:
It is often thought that motion being relative was invented by Einstein, but Leibniz wholeheartedly embraced 'Galilean relativity', and refused to even consider any absolute concept of motion. Acceleration is a bit trickier than velocity.
|