Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Constitutional Code I', 'The Analyst' and 'Letter to Bramhall'

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4 ideas

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 5. The Infinite / k. Infinitesimals

18091	Infinitesimals are ghosts of departed quantities [Berkeley]
	Full Idea: The infinitesimals are the ghosts of departed quantities.
	From: George Berkeley (The Analyst [1734]), quoted by David Bostock - Philosophy of Mathematics 4.3
	A reaction: [A famous phrase, but as yet no context for it]

9. Objects / C. Structure of Objects / 2. Hylomorphism / a. Hylomorphism

16620	A chair is wood, and its shape is the form; it isn't 'compounded' of the matter and form [Hobbes]
	Full Idea: Nothing can be compounded of matter and form. The matter of a chair is wood; the form is the figure it has, apt for the intended use. Does his Lordship think the chair compounded of the wood and the figure?
	From: Thomas Hobbes (Letter to Bramhall [1650], 4:302), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 07.1
	A reaction: Aristotle does use the word 'shape' [morphe] when he is discussing hylomorphism, and the statue example seems to support it, but elsewhere the form is a much deeper principle of individuation.

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism

16622	Essence is just an artificial word from logic, giving a way of thinking about substances [Hobbes]
	Full Idea: Essence and all other abstract names are words artificial belonging to the art of logic, and signify only the manner how we consider the substance itself.
	From: Thomas Hobbes (Letter to Bramhall [1650], 4:308), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671
	A reaction: I sympathise quite a lot with this view, but not with its dismissive tone. The key question I take to be: if you reject essences entirely (having read too much physics), how are we going to think about entities in the world in future?

22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 3. Pleasure / b. Types of pleasure

5271	Prejudice apart, push-pin has equal value with music and poetry [Bentham]
	Full Idea: Prejudice apart, the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and science of music and poetry.
	From: Jeremy Bentham (Constitutional Code I [1827], p.139), quoted by J.R. Dinwiddy - Bentham p.114
	A reaction: Mill quoted this with implied outrage, but Bentham was attacking public subsidies to the arts when he said it. It is a basic idea in the debate on pleasure - that pleasures are only distinguished by their intensity, not some other value.