53 ideas
6814 | Instead of prayer and charity, sinners pursue vain disputes and want their own personal scripture [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: The sinners will say 'we never prayed or fed the hungry. We engaged in vain disputes and denied the Day of Reckoning'. Indeed, each one of them demands a scripture of his own to be unrolled before him. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.74) | |
A reaction: The implication seems to be that most disputes are 'vain'. The charge that everyone wants a 'scripture of his own' is a nice challenge to the world of liberal education, where we are all enjoined to pursue our personalised routes to our own truth. |
10468 | A metaphysics has an ontology (objects) and an ideology (expressed ideas about them) [Oliver] |
Full Idea: A metaphysical theory hs two parts: ontology and ideology. The ontology consists of the entities which the theory says exist; the ideology consists of the ideas which are expressed within the theory using predicates. Ideology sorts into categories. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §02.1) | |
A reaction: Say 'what there is', and 'what we can say about it'. The modern notion remains controversial (see Ladyman and Ross, for example), so it is as well to start crystalising what metaphysics is. I am enthusiastic, but nervous about what is being said. |
10471 | Ockham's Razor has more content if it says believe only in what is causal [Oliver] |
Full Idea: One might give Ockham's Razor a bit more content by advising belief in only those entities which are causally efficacious. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §03) | |
A reaction: He cites Armstrong as taking this line, but I immediately think of Shoemaker's account of properties. It seems to me to be the only account which will separate properties from predicates, and bring them under common sense control. |
10749 | Necessary truths seem to all have the same truth-maker [Oliver] |
Full Idea: The definition of truth-makers entails that a truth-maker for a given necessary truth is equally a truth-maker for every other necessary truth. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §24) | |
A reaction: Maybe we could accept this. Necessary truths concern the way things have to be, so all realities will embody them. Are we to say that nothing makes a necessary truth true? |
10750 | Slingshot Argument: seems to prove that all sentences have the same truth-maker [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Slingshot Argument: if truth-makers work for equivalent sentences and co-referring substitute sentences, then if 'the numbers + S1 = the numbers' has a truth-maker, then 'the numbers + S2 = the numbers' will have the same truth-maker. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §24) | |
A reaction: [compressed] Hence every sentence has the same truth-maker! Truth-maker fans must challenge one of the premises. |
10747 | Accepting properties by ontological commitment tells you very little about them [Oliver] |
Full Idea: The route to the existence of properties via ontological commitment provides little information about what properties are like. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §22) | |
A reaction: NIce point, and rather important, I would say. I could hardly be committed to something for the sole reason that I had expressed a statement which contained an ontological commitment. Start from the reason for making the statement. |
10748 | Reference is not the only way for a predicate to have ontological commitment [Oliver] |
Full Idea: For a predicate to have a referential function is one way, but not the only way, to harbour ontological commitment. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §22) | |
A reaction: Presumably the main idea is that the predicate makes some important contribution to a sentence which is held to be true. Maybe reference is achieved by the whole sentence, rather than by one bit of it. |
10719 | There are four conditions defining the relations between particulars and properties [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Four adequacy conditions for particulars and properties: asymmetry of instantiation; different particulars can have the same property; particulars can have many properties; two properties can be instantiated by the same particulars. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §09) | |
A reaction: The distinction between particulars and universals has been challenged (e.g. by Ramsey and MacBride). There are difficulties in the notion of 'instantiation', and in the notion of two properties being 'the same'. |
10721 | If properties are sui generis, are they abstract or concrete? [Oliver] |
Full Idea: If properties are sui generis entities, one must decide whether they are abstract or concrete. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §09) | |
A reaction: A nice basic question! I take the real properties to be concrete, but we abstract from them, especially from their similarities, and then become deeply confused about the ontology, because our language doesn't mark the distinctions clearly. |
10716 | There are just as many properties as the laws require [Oliver] |
Full Idea: One conception of properties says there are only as many properties as are needed to be constituents of laws. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §03) | |
A reaction: I take this view to the be precise opposite of the real situation. The properties are what lead to the laws. Properties are internal to nature, and laws are imposed from outside, which is ridiculous unless you think there is an active deity. |
10720 | We have four options, depending whether particulars and properties are sui generis or constructions [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Both properties and particulars can be taken as either sui generis or as constructions, so we have four options: both sui generis, or both constructions, or one of each. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §09) | |
A reaction: I think I favour both being sui generis. God didn't make the objects, then add their properties, or make the properties then create some instantiations. There can't be objects without properties, or objectless properties (except in thought). |
10714 | The expressions with properties as their meanings are predicates and abstract singular terms [Oliver] |
Full Idea: The types of expressions which have properties as their meanings may vary, the chief candidates being predicates, such as '...is wise', and abstract singular terms, such as 'wisdom'. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §02) | |
A reaction: This seems to be important, because there is too much emphasis on predicates. If this idea is correct, we need some account of what 'abstract' means, which is notoriously tricky. |
10715 | There are five main semantic theories for properties [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Properties in semantic theory: functions from worlds to extensions ('Californian'), reference, as opposed to sense, of predicates (Frege), reference to universals (Russell), reference to situations (Barwise/Perry), and composition from context (Lewis). | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §02 n12) | |
A reaction: [compressed; 'Californian' refers to Carnap and Montague; the Lewis view is p,67 of Oliver]. Frege misses out singular terms, or tries to paraphrase them away. Barwise and Perry sound promising to me. Situations involve powers. |
10738 | Tropes are not properties, since they can't be instantiated twice [Oliver] |
Full Idea: I rule that tropes are not properties, because it is not true that one and the same trope of redness is instantiated by two books. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §12) | |
A reaction: This seems right, but has very far-reaching implications, because it means there are no properties, and no two things have the same properties, so there can be no generalisations about properties, let alone laws. ..But they have equivalence sets. |
10739 | The property of redness is the maximal set of the tropes of exactly similar redness [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Using the predicate '...is exactly similar to...' we can sort tropes into equivalence sets, these sets serving as properties and relations. For example, the property of redness is the maximal set of the tropes of redness. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §12) | |
A reaction: You have somehow to get from scarlet and vermilion, which have exact similarity within their sets, to redness, which doesn't. |
10740 | The orthodox view does not allow for uninstantiated tropes [Oliver] |
Full Idea: It is usual to hold an aristotelian conception of tropes, according to which tropes are present in their particular instances, and which does not allow for uninstantiated tropes. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §12) | |
A reaction: What are you discussing when you ask what colour the wall should be painted? Presumably we can imagine non-existent tropes. If I vividly imagine my wall looking yellow, have I brought anything into existence? |
10741 | Maybe concrete particulars are mereological wholes of abstract particulars [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Some trope theorists give accounts of particulars. Sets of tropes will not do because they are always abstract, but we might say that particulars are (concrete) mereological wholes of the tropes which they instantiate. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §12) | |
A reaction: Looks like a non-starter to me. How can abstract entities add up to a mereological whole which is concrete? |
10742 | Tropes can overlap, and shouldn't be splittable into parts [Oliver] |
Full Idea: More than one trope can occupy the same place at the same time, and a trope occupies a place without having parts which occupy parts of the place. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §12) | |
A reaction: This is the general question of the size of a spatial trope, or 'how many red tropes in a tin of red paint?' |
10472 | 'Structural universals' methane and butane are made of the same universals, carbon and hydrogen [Oliver] |
Full Idea: The 'structural universals' methane and butane are each made up of the same universals, carbon and hydrogen. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §07) | |
A reaction: He cites Lewis 1986, who is criticising Armstrong. If you insist on having universals, they might (in this case) best be described as 'patterns', which would be useful for structuralism in mathematics. They reduce to relations. |
10724 | Located universals are wholly present in many places, and two can be in the same place [Oliver] |
Full Idea: So-called aristotelian universals have some queer features: one universal can be wholly present at different places at the same time, and two universals can occupy the same place at the same time. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11) | |
A reaction: If you want to make a metaphysical doctrine look ridiculous, stating it in very simple language will often do the job. Belief in fairies is more plausible than the first of these two claims. |
7963 | Aristotle's instantiated universals cannot account for properties of abstract objects [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Properties and relations of abstract objects may need to be acknowledged, but they would have no spatio-temporal location, so they cannot instantiate Aristotelian universals, there being nowhere for such universals to be. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11), quoted by Cynthia Macdonald - Varieties of Things | |
A reaction: Maybe. Why can't the second-order properties be in the same location as the first-order ones? If the reply is that they would seem to be in many places at once, that is only restating the original problem of universals at a higher level. |
10730 | If universals ground similarities, what about uniquely instantiated universals? [Oliver] |
Full Idea: If universals are to ground similarities, it is hard to see why one should admit universals which only happen to be instantiated once. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11) | |
A reaction: He is criticising Armstrong, who holds that universals must be instantiated. This is a good point about any metaphysics which makes resemblance basic. |
10727 | Uninstantiated universals seem to exist if they themselves have properties [Oliver] |
Full Idea: We may have to accept uninstantiated universals because the properties and relations of abstract objects may need to be acknowledged. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11) | |
A reaction: This is the problem of 'abstract reference'. 'Courage matters more than kindness'; 'Pink is more like red than like yellow'. Not an impressive argument. All you need is second-level abstraction. |
7962 | Uninstantiated properties are useful in philosophy [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Uninstantiated properties and relations may do some useful philosophical work. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11), quoted by Cynthia Macdonald - Varieties of Things | |
A reaction: Their value isn't just philosophical; hopes and speculations depend on them. This doesn't make universals mind-independent. I think the secret is a clear understanding of the word 'abstract' (which I don't have). |
10722 | Instantiation is set-membership [Oliver] |
Full Idea: One view of instantiation is that it is the set-membership predicate. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §10) | |
A reaction: This cuts the Gordian knot rather nicely, but I don't like it, if the view of sets is extensional. We need to account for natural properties, and we need to exclude mere 'categorial' properties. |
10744 | Nominalism can reject abstractions, or universals, or sets [Oliver] |
Full Idea: We can say that 'Harvard-nominalism' is the thesis that there are no abstract objects, 'Oz-nominalism' that there are no universals, and Goodman's nominalism rejects entities, such as sets, which fail to obey a certain principle of composition. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §15 n46) | |
A reaction: Personally I'm a Goodman-Harvard-Oz nominalist. What are you rebelling against? What have you got? We've been mesmerized by the workings of our own minds, which are trying to grapple with a purely physical world. |
10726 | Things can't be fusions of universals, because two things could then be one thing [Oliver] |
Full Idea: If a particular thing is a bundle of located universals, we might say it is a mereological fusion of them, but if two universals can be instantiated by more than one particular, then two particulars can have the same universals, and be the same thing. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11) | |
A reaction: This and Idea 10725 pretty thoroughly demolish the idea that objects could be just bundles of universals. The problem pushes some philosophers back to the idea of 'substance', or some sort of 'substratum' which has the universals. |
10725 | Abstract sets of universals can't be bundled to make concrete things [Oliver] |
Full Idea: If a particular thing is a bundle of located universals, we might say that it is the set of its universals, but this won't work because the thing can be concrete but sets are abstract. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11) | |
A reaction: This objection applies just as much to tropes (abstract particulars) as it does to universals. |
10745 | Science is modally committed, to disposition, causation and law [Oliver] |
Full Idea: Natural science is up to its ears in modal notions because of its use of the concepts of disposition, causation and law. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §15) | |
A reaction: This is aimed at Quine. It might be possible for an auster physicist to dispense with these concepts, by merely describing patterns of observed behaviour. |
10746 | Conceptual priority is barely intelligible [Oliver] |
Full Idea: I find the notion of conceptual priority barely intelligible. | |
From: Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §19 n48) | |
A reaction: I don't think I agree, though there is a lot of vagueness and intuition involved, and not a lot of hard argument. Can you derive A from B, but not B from A? Is A inconceivable without B, but B conceivable without A? |
6823 | Repay evil with good and your enemies will become friends (though this is hard) [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Requite evil with good, and he who is your enemy will become your dearest friend; but none will attain this save those who endure with fortitude and are greatly favoured by Allah. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.41) | |
A reaction: This seems opposed to some of the more vengeful remarks in the Koran. It strikes me as good common sense, since vengeance only seems to breed counter-vengeance. It doesn't carry the full altruistic commitment, though, of unrewarded love. |
6828 | You may break off a treaty if you fear treachery from your ally [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: If you fear treachery from any of your allies, you may retaliate by breaking off your treaty with them; Allah does not love the treacherous. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.8) | |
A reaction: I do not think this is good advice. Everybody fears treachery, but if we all acted on that fear human relationships and society would immediately collapse. If anyone thought this was good advice, I would not want to make a treaty with them. |
6826 | Allah rewards those who are devout, sincere, patient, humble, charitable, chaste, and who fast [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Allah will bestow forgiveness and a rich reward on those, both men and women, who are devout, sincere, patient, humble, charitable and chaste; who fast and are ever mindful of Allah. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.33) | |
A reaction: Most people would still agree that all of these are virtues, though other lists will show interesting virtues that are not mentioned here, and many on this list seem overrated in the modern pantheon of virtues. |
6822 | Those who avenge themselves when wronged incur no guilt [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Those who avenge themselves when wronged incur no guilt. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.42) | |
A reaction: Compare Ideas 1659 (Protagoras), 346 (Socrates), 6288 (Jesus), and 4286 (Scruton!). In the light of those ideas, this comment in the Koran strikes me as coming from an older and less civilized world. |
6833 | Punish theft in men or women by cutting off their hands [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: As for the man or woman who is guilty of theft, cut off their hands to punish them for their crimes. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.5) | |
A reaction: I find this shocking because it is irrevocable and offers no hope of redemption. It is particularly shocking that the text does not enjoin any caution about inflicting the punishment on the young, most of whom reform from thieving in later life. |
6825 | Do not kill except for a just cause [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Do not kill except for a just cause. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.25) | |
A reaction: Slippery slope! I can see that pleasure would not be a just cause, and ensuring the entry of all humanity to paradise might be one, but I find the area in between a little unclear. The Koran seems to allow you to decide for yourself. |
6832 | Killing a human, except as just punishment, is like killing all mankind [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: We laid it down for the Israelites that whoever killed a human being, except as a punishment for murder or other wicked crimes, should be looked upon as though he had killed all mankind. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.5) | |
A reaction: It seems inconceivable that the Koran could be used to justify indiscriminate terrorism, in the light of remarks such as this. |
14014 | Space alone, and time alone, will fade away, and only their union has an independent reality [Minkowski] |
Full Idea: Henceforth, space by itself, and time by itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality. | |
From: Hermann Minkowski (Space and Time [1908], Intro) | |
A reaction: Notice the qualification that it is a 'kind of' union. Deep confusion arises from exaggerating the analogy between space and time. Craig Bourne remarks (2006:157) that this shows independence of measurement, not of reality |
6811 | Allah is lord of creation, compassionate, merciful, king of judgement-day [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Praise be to Allah, Lord of Creation, The Compassionate, the Merciful, King of Judgement-day! | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Exord) | |
A reaction: The Muslim concept of God confronts directly a clear theological difficulty, a difficulty faced by any judge: the conflict between mercy and justice. Christianity seems to emphasise mercy, and Islam emphasises justice. |
6819 | True believers see that Allah made the night for rest and the day to give light [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Do they not see how We have made the night for them to rest in and the day to give them light? Surely there are signs in this for true believers. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.27) | |
A reaction: The main traditional argument for God implied in the Koran is the design argument. It is clear from this that Islam will not be comfortable with Darwinian evolution, which implies we are 'designed' for the Earth, not the Earth for us. |
6818 | Allah cannot have begotten a son, as He is self-sufficient [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: They say: 'Allah has begotten a son.' Allah forbid! Self-sufficient is He. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.10) | |
A reaction: This is quite persuasive, except that the point of Jesus is that he suffers a cruel death, and we are required to identify with God's parental feelings here, His involvement, which would not occur with the death of one of His prophets. |
6827 | Make war on the unbelievers until Allah's religion reigns supreme [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Make war on the unbelievers until idolatry is no more and Allah's religion reigns supreme. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.8) | |
A reaction: This should presumably be seen in context, as a war speech written during a conflict, like Churchill 'fighting them on the beaches', which does not apply to modern German tourists. However, one worries about how fundamentalists might read it. |
6829 | There shall be no compulsion in religion [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: There shall be no compulsion in religion. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.2) | |
A reaction: This seems to contradict some of the more aggressive remarks in the Koran, such as Idea 6827. As I read it, the three non-compelling ideas that lead to true religion in the Koran are desire for paradise, fear of punishment, and worship of divine design. |
6834 | Unbelievers try to interpret the ambiguous parts of the Koran, simply to create dissension [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Some of the verses of the Koran are precise in meaning - they are the foundations of the Book - and others are ambiguous. Disbelievers follow the ambiguous part, to create dissension by seeking to explain it. No one knows its meaning except Allah. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.3) | |
A reaction: It is tempting to ask why some of the verses are ambiguous. The implication here is that they are a deliberate test for believers, like the apple in the garden of Eden. |
6817 | The Koran is certainly composed by Allah; no one could compose a chapter like it [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: This Koran could not have been composed by any but Allah. It is beyond doubt from the Lord of the Creation. If they say: 'It is your own invention', say: 'Compose one chapter like it. Call on your false gods to help you!' | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.10) | |
A reaction: I find this unpersuasive, firstly because I couldn't imitate the sonnets of Shakespeare either, and secondly because the authority of a text must be asserted outside the text, not within it. Scribble "this is a ten pound note" on a scrap of paper. |
6824 | Do not split into sects, exulting in separate beliefs [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Do not split up your religion into sects, each exulting in its own beliefs. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.30) | |
A reaction: This seems like good advice to a religion, but it is very difficult to retrace steps and reunite once it has happened. Which sect should make the greatest concessions? Must they both admit to being somewhat wrong? |
6821 | I created mankind that it might worship Me [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: I created mankind and the jinn in order that they might worship Me. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.51) | |
A reaction: This seems to be a view common to all the monotheistic religions, with monasticism as its clearest (and most logical) outcome. Nietzsche is the most obvious opponent of this idea that the abasement of mankind is its highest ideal. |
6815 | Be patient with unbelievers, and leave them to the judgement of Allah [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Bear patiently with what the unbelievers say, and leave their company without recrimination; leave to Me those that deny the truth. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.73) | |
A reaction: This explicitly says Muslims should not attack infidels simply for their unbelief in Allah. |
6831 | He that kills a believer by design shall burn in Hell for ever [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: He that kills a believer by design shall burn in Hell for ever. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.4) | |
A reaction: This would appear to make modern indiscriminate urban terrorism a damning sin for a Muslim. |
6820 | The righteous shall dwell on couches in gardens, wedded to dark-eyed houris [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: In fair gardens the righteous shall dwell in bliss, rejoicing in what their Lord will give them. They shall recline on couches ranged in rows. To dark-eyed houris We shall wed them. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.52) | |
A reaction: What I find distressing about this is that we have gradually worked out how young men can recline on couches in gardens with dark-eyed houris before death, and the Koran seems to depict it as the highest form of living. |
6812 | Heaven will be reclining on couches, eating fruit, attended by virgins [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: All who dwell in heaven shall recline on couches lined with thick brocade, and within their reach will hang the fruits of gardens; they shall dwell with bashful virgins whom neither men nor jinnee will have touched before. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.55) | |
A reaction: In the seventh century this was more impressive than it seems now. I still find it sad (though understandable) that paradise must always be depicted in terms of physical pleasure. Aristotle wouldn't have yearned for such an immortality. |
6830 | Unbelievers will have their skin repeatedly burned off in hell [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: Those that deny Our revelations We will burn in Hell-fire. No sooner will their skins be consumed that We shall give them other skins, so that they may truly taste Our scourge. Allah is mighty and wise. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.4) | |
A reaction: Of all the accounts of hell in the Koran, this strikes me as the most alarming. I cannot think of a worse infliction, because here every nerve which can experience pain will suffer it (though the drinking of boiling water, Idea 6816, will make it worse). |
6816 | The unbelievers shall drink boiling water [Mohammed] |
Full Idea: As for the unbelievers, they shall drink boiling water. | |
From: Mohammed (The Koran [c.622], Ch.10) | |
A reaction: This seems to be presented not only as a threat to unbelievers, but also as a satisfaction to believers. |