5 ideas
19395 | Philosophy is sanctified, because it flows from God [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: Philosophy is sanctified by having its streams flow from the fountain of God's attributes. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (A General Principle to Explain Laws of Nature [1687], p.69) |
19394 | Inequality can be brought infinitely close to equality [Leibniz] |
Full Idea: Equality may be considered as an infinitely small inequality, and we may make inequality approach equality as much as we wish. | |
From: Gottfried Leibniz (A General Principle to Explain Laws of Nature [1687], p.67) | |
A reaction: An interesting response to David Lewis's brusque dismissal of the problem of identity, as all-or-nothing...end of story. |
490 | Everything happens by reason and necessity [Leucippus] |
Full Idea: Nothing happens at random; everything happens out of reason and by necessity. | |
From: Leucippus (fragments/reports [c.435 BCE], B002), quoted by (who?) - where? |
20645 | Heat is a state of vibration, not a substance [Joule] |
Full Idea: We consider heat not as a substance but as a state of vibration. | |
From: James Joule (works [1870]), quoted by Peter Watson - Convergence 01 'Nature's' | |
A reaction: The puzzle is that giving accurate accounts of vibrations, heat and movement require a quantitative substance, energy. But all we have here is movement, and the denial of a substance. Energy is 'nature's currency system'. |
20972 | Joule showed that energy converts to heat, and heat to energy [Joule, by Papineau] |
Full Idea: James Joule established the equivalence of heat and mechanical energy, in the sense of showing that a specific amount of heat will always be produced by the expenditure of a given amount of energy, and vice versa. | |
From: report of James Joule (works [1870]) by David Papineau - Thinking about Consciousness App 4.2 | |
A reaction: This was a major step towards the law of conservation of energy. |