14508
|
A 'thisness' is a thing's property of being identical with itself (not the possession of self-identity) [Adams,RM]
|
|
Full Idea:
A thisness is the property of being identical with a certain particular individual - not the property that we all share, of being identical with some individual, but my property of being identical with me, your property of being identical with you etc.
|
|
From:
Robert Merrihew Adams (Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity [1979], 1)
|
|
A reaction:
These philosophers tell you that a thisness 'is' so-and-so, and don't admit that he (and Plantinga) are putting forward a new theory about haecceities, and one I find implausible. I just don't believe in the property of 'being-identical-to-me'.
|
12034
|
If the universe was cyclical, totally indiscernible events might occur from time to time [Adams,RM]
|
|
Full Idea:
There is a temporal argument for the possibility of non-identical indiscernibles, if there could be a cyclical universe, in which each event was preceded and followed by infinitely many other events qualitatively indiscernible from itself.
|
|
From:
Robert Merrihew Adams (Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity [1979], 3)
|
|
A reaction:
The argument is a parallel to Max Black's indiscernible spheres in space. Adams offers the reply that time might be tightly 'curved', so that the repetition was indeed the same event again.
|
14510
|
Two events might be indiscernible yet distinct, if there was a universe cyclical in time [Adams,RM]
|
|
Full Idea:
Similar to the argument from spatial dispersal, we can argue against the Identity of Indiscernibles from temporal dispersal. It seems there could be a cyclic universe, ..and thus there could be distinct but indiscernible events, separated temporally.
|
|
From:
Robert Merrihew Adams (Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity [1979], 3)
|
|
A reaction:
See Idea 14509 for spatial dispersal. If cosmologists decided that a cyclical universe was incoherent, would that ruin the argument? Presumably there might even be indistinguishable events in the one universe (in principle!).
|
16455
|
Black's two globes might be one globe in highly curved space [Adams,RM]
|
|
Full Idea:
If God creates a globe reached by travelling two diameters in a straight line from another globe, this can be described as two globes in Euclidean space, or a single globe in a tightly curved non-Euclidean space.
|
|
From:
Robert Merrihew Adams (Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity [1979], 3)
|
|
A reaction:
[my compression of Adams's version of Hacking's response to Black, as spotted by Stalnaker] Hence we save the identity of indiscernibles, by saying we can't be sure that two indiscernibles are not one thing, unusually described.
|
11901
|
Haecceitism may or may not involve some logical connection to essence [Adams,RM, by Mackie,P]
|
|
Full Idea:
Moderate Haecceitism says that thisnesses and transworld identities are primitive, but logically connected with suchnesses. ..Extreme Haecceitism involves the rejection of all logical connections between suchness and thisness, for persons.
|
|
From:
report of Robert Merrihew Adams (Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity [1979]) by Penelope Mackie - How Things Might Have Been
|
|
A reaction:
I am coming to the conclusion that they are not linked. That thisness is a feature of our conceptual thinking, and is utterly atomistic and content-free, while suchness is rich and a feature of reality.
|
12032
|
Direct reference is by proper names, or indexicals, or referential uses of descriptions [Adams,RM]
|
|
Full Idea:
Direct reference is commonly effected by the use of proper names and indexical expressions, and sometimes by what has been called (by Donnellan) the 'referential' use of descriptions.
|
|
From:
Robert Merrihew Adams (Primitive Thisness and Primitive Identity [1979], 2)
|
|
A reaction:
One might enquire whether the third usage should be described as 'direct', but then I am not sure that there is much of a distinction between references which are or are not 'direct'. Either you (or a sentence) refer or you (or it) don't.
|
11214
|
We learn 'not' along with affirmation, by learning to either affirm or deny a sentence [Rumfitt]
|
|
Full Idea:
The standard view is that affirming not-A is more complex than affirming the atomic sentence A itself, with the latter determining its sense. But we could learn 'not' directly, by learning at once how to either affirm A or reject A.
|
|
From:
Ian Rumfitt ("Yes" and "No" [2000], IV)
|
|
A reaction:
[compressed] This seems fairly anti-Fregean in spirit, because it looks at the psychology of how we learn 'not' as a way of clarifying what we mean by it, rather than just looking at its logical behaviour (and thus giving it a secondary role).
|
9284
|
Reasons are 'internal' if they give a person a motive to act, but 'external' otherwise [Williams,B]
|
|
Full Idea:
Someone has 'internal reasons' to act when the person has some motive which will be served or furthered by the action; if this turns out not to be so, the reason is false. Reasons are 'external' when there is no such condition.
|
|
From:
Bernard Williams (Internal and External Reasons [1980], p.101)
|
|
A reaction:
[compressed] An external example given is a family tradition of joining the army, if the person doesn't want to. Williams says (p.111) external reason statements are actually false, and a misapplication of the concept of a 'reason to act'. See Idea 8815.
|