11897
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A principle of individuation may pinpoint identity and distinctness, now and over time [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
One view of a principle of individuation is what is called a 'criterion of identity', determining answers to questions about identity and distinctness at a time and over time - a principle of distinction and persistence.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 8.2)
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A reaction:
Since the term 'Prime Minister' might do this job, presumably there could be a de dicto as well as a de re version of individuation. The distinctness consists of chairing cabinet meetings, rather than being of a particular sex.
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11883
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A haecceity is the essential, simple, unanalysable property of being-this-thing [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
Socrates can be assigned a haecceity: an essential property of 'being Socrates' which (unlike the property of 'being identical with Socrates') may be regarded as what 'makes' its possessor Socrates in a non-trivial sense, but is simple and unanalysable.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 2.2)
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A reaction:
I don't accept that there is any such property as 'being Socrates' (or even 'being identical with Socrates'), except as empty locutions or logical devices. A haecceity seems to be the 'ultimate subject of predication', with no predicates of its own.
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11882
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No other object can possibly have the same individual essence as some object [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
Individual essences are essential properties that are unique to them alone. ...If a set of properties is an individual essence of A, then A has the properties essentially, and no other actual or possible object actually or possibly has them.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 2.1/2)
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A reaction:
I'm unconvinced about this. Tigers have an essence, but individual tigers have individual essences over and above their tigerish qualities, yet the perfect identity of two tigers still seems to be possible.
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11899
|
Why are any sortals essential, and why are only some of them essential? [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
Accounts of sortal essentialism do not give a satisfactory explanation of why any sortals should be essential sortals, or a satisfactory account of why some sortals should be essential while others are not.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 8.6)
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A reaction:
A theory is not wrong, just because it cannot give a 'satisfactory explanation' of every aspect of the subject. We might, though, ask why the theory isn't doing well in this area.
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11893
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Possibilities for Caesar must be based on some phase of the real Caesar [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
I take the 'overlap requirement' for Julius Caesar to be that, when considering how he might have been different, you have to take him as he actually was at some time in his existence, and consider possibilities consistent with that.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 6.5)
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A reaction:
This is quite a large claim (larger than Mackie thinks?), as it seems equally applicable to properties, states of affairs and propositions, as well as to individuals. Possibility that has no contact at all with actuality is beyond our comprehension.
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11884
|
The theory of 'haecceitism' does not need commitment to individual haecceities [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
The theory that things have 'haecceities' must be sharply distinguished from the theory referred to as 'haecceitism', which says there may be differences in transworld identities that do not supervene on qualitative differences.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 2.2 n7)
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A reaction:
She says later [p,43 n] that it is possible to be a haecceitist without believing in individual haecceities, if (say) the transworld identities had no basis at all. Note that if 'thisness' is 'haecceity', then 'whatness' is 'quiddity'.
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11905
|
Locke's kind essences are explanatory, without being necessary to the kind [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
One might speak of 'Lockean real essences' of a natural kind, a set of properties that is basic in the explanation of the other properties of the kind, without commitment to the essence belonging to the kind in all possible worlds.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 10.1)
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A reaction:
I think this may be the most promising account. The essence of a tiger explains what tigers are like, but tigers may evolve into domestic pets. Questions of individuation and of explaining seem to be quite separate.
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7903
|
The six perfections are giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom [Nagarjuna]
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Full Idea:
The six perfections are of giving, morality, patience, vigour, meditation, and wisdom.
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From:
Nagarjuna (Mahaprajnaparamitashastra [c.120], 88)
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A reaction:
What is 'morality', if giving is not part of it? I like patience and vigour being two of the virtues, which immediately implies an Aristotelian mean (which is always what is 'appropriate').
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7339
|
Because human life is what is sacred, Mosaic law has no death penalty for property violations [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
Where other codes provided the death penalty for offences against property, in Mosaic law no property offence is capital; human life is too sacred, where the rights of property alone are violated.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt I)
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A reaction:
We still preserve this idea in our law, and also in our culture, where we are keen to insist that catastrophes like earthquakes or major fires are measured almost entirely by the loss of life, not the loss of property. I approve.
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7353
|
The Pharisees undermined slavery, by giving slaves responsibility and status in law courts [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
It is no accident that slavery among Jews disappeared with the rise of the Pharisees, as they insisted that all were equal before God in a court. Masters were no longer responsible for actions of slaves, so a slave had status, and slavery could not work.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt II)
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A reaction:
As in seventeenth century England, the rise of social freedom comes from religious sources, not social sources. A slave has status in the transcendent world of souls, despite being a nobody in the physical world.
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7340
|
Mosaic law was the first to embody the rule of law, and equality before the law [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
Mosaic law meant that God ruled through his laws, and since all were equally subject to the law, the system was the first to embody the double merits of the rule of law and equality before the law.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt I)
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A reaction:
If this is correct, it seems to be a hugely important step, combined with Idea 1659, that revenge should be the action of a the state, not of the individual. They are the few simple and essential keys to civilization.
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7338
|
Man's life is sacred, because it is made in God's image [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
In Mosaic theology, man is made in God's image, and so his life is not just valuable, it is sacred.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt I)
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A reaction:
The obvious question is what exactly is meant by "in God's image". Physically, spiritually, intellectually, morally? I am guessing that the original idea was intellectual, because we are the only rational animal. The others seem unlikely, or arrogant.
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11907
|
Maybe the identity of kinds is necessary, but instances being of that kind is not [Mackie,P]
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Full Idea:
One could be an essentialist about natural kinds (of tigers, or water) while holding that every actual instance or sample of a natural kind is only accidentally an instance or a sample of that kind.
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From:
Penelope Mackie (How Things Might Have Been [2006], 10.2)
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A reaction:
You wonder, then, in what the necessity of the kind consists, if it is not rooted in the instances, and presumably it could only result from a stipulative definition, and hence be conventional.
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7336
|
A key moment is the idea of a single moral God, who imposes his morality on humanity [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
The discovery of monotheism, and not just of monotheism but of a sole, omnipotent God actuated by ethical principles and seeking methodically to impose them on human beings, is one of the greatest turning-points in history, perhaps the greatest of all.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt I)
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A reaction:
'Discovery' begs some questions, but when put like this you realise what a remarkable event it was. It is a good candidate for the most influential idea ever, even if large chunks of humanity, especially in the orient, never took to monotheism.
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7341
|
Sampson illustrates the idea that religious heroes often begin as outlaws and semi-criminals [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
Sampson is the outstanding example of the point which the Book of Judges makes again and again, that the Lord and society are often served by semi-criminal types, outlaws and misfits, who become folk-heroes and then religious heroes.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt I)
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A reaction:
This illustrates nicely Nietzsche's claim, that the jews were responsible for his 'inversion of values', in which aristocratic virtues are downgraded, and the virtues of a good slave are elevated (though Sampson may not show that point so well!).
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7355
|
The Torah pre-existed creation, and was its blueprint [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
The Torah was not just a book about God. It pre-existed creation, in the same way as God did. In fact, it was the blueprint of creation.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt III)
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A reaction:
You can only become a 'people of the book' (which Moslems resented in Judaism, and then emulated) if you give this stupendously high status to your book. Hence Christian fundamentalism makes sense, with its emphasis on the divinity of the Bible.
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7344
|
Judaism involves circumcision, Sabbath, Passover, Pentecost, Tabernacles, New Year, and Atonement [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
The practices of Judaism developed during their Exile: circumcision, the Sabbath, the Passover (founding of the nation), Pentecost (giving of the laws), the Tabernacles, the New Year, and the Day of Atonement.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt II)
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A reaction:
These were the elements of ritual created to replace the existence of a physically located state. An astonishing achievement, not even remotely achieved by any other state that was driven off its lands. A culture is an idea, not a country.
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7347
|
Zoroastrians believed in one eternal beneficent being, Creator through the holy spirit [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
Cyrus the Great was a Zoroastrian, believing in one, eternal, beneficent being, 'Creator of all things through the holy spirit'.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt II)
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A reaction:
Is this the actual origin of monotheism, or did they absorb this idea from the Jews? The interesting bit is the fact that the supreme being (called Marduk) is 'beneficent', which one doesn't associate with these remote and supposed pagans.
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7349
|
Immortality based on judgement of merit was developed by the Egyptians (not the Jews) [Johnson,P]
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Full Idea:
The idea of judgement at death and immortality on the basis of merit were developed in Egypt before 1000 BCE. It is not Jewish because it was not in the Torah, and the Sadducees, who stuck to their texts, seemed to have denied the afterlife completely.
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From:
Paul Johnson (The History of the Jews [1987], Pt II)
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A reaction:
This is the idea considered crucial to religion by Immanuel Kant (Idea 1455), who should be declared an honorary Egyptian. To me the idea that only the good go to heaven sounds like sadly wishful thinking - a fictional consolation for an unhappy life.
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