Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Letters to a German Princess', 'Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks' and 'Identity through Possible Worlds'

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4 ideas

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences

11966	If there are essential properties, how do you find out what they are? [Chisholm]
	Full Idea: It seems to me that if Adam does have essential properties, there is no procedure at all for finding out what they are.
	From: Roderick Chisholm (Identity through Possible Worlds [1967], p.85)
	A reaction: My tentative suggestion is that the essential properties are those which explain the nature, power, function and role of Adam in the 'actual' world. Whatever possibilities he acquires, he had better retain the capacity to be the First Man.

10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / a. Transworld identity

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.

23. Ethics / F. Existentialism / 5. Existence-Essence

20130	It is absurd to think you can change your own essence, like a garment [Nietzsche]
	Full Idea: Man is necessity down to his last fibre, and totally 'unfree', that is if one means by freedom the foolish demand to be able to change one's 'essentia' arbitrarily, like a garment.
	From: Friedrich Nietzsche (Philosophy in the Tragic Age of the Greeks [1873], p.7), quoted by Brian Leiter - Nietzsche On Morality 2 'Realism'
	A reaction: This is the big difference between the existentialism of Nietzsche and the more famous Sartrean approach, where the idea of being able to remake your essence is the most exciting and glamorous proposal. I'm with Nietzsche.

26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 1. Laws of Nature

5467	Euler said nature is instrinsically passive, and minds cause change [Euler, by Ellis]
	Full Idea: Euler thought the powers necessary for the maintenance of the changing universe would turn out to be just the passive ones of inertia and impenetrability. There are no active powers, he urged, other than those of God and living beings.
	From: report of Leonhard Euler (Letters to a German Princess [1765]) by Brian Ellis - The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism Ch.4
	A reaction: Very significant, I think, for revealing the religious framework behind early theories of natural laws. If there is nothing external to impose powers and movements on nature, the source must be sought within - hence essentialism.