Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Causes and Counterfactuals', 'Possible Worlds and Necessary A Posteriori' and 'On the Heavens'

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21 ideas

2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason
19740 A very hungry man cannot choose between equidistant piles of food [Aristotle]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 9. Essence and Properties
14633 How do we tell a table's being contingently plastic from its being essentially plastic? [Jackson]
14635 An x is essentially F if it is F in every possible world in which it appears [Jackson]
9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 15. Against Essentialism
14632 Quine may have conflated de re and de dicto essentialism, but there is a real epistemological problem [Jackson]
10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 3. A Posteriori Necessary
14631 How can you show the necessity of an a posteriori necessity, if it might turn out to be false? [Jackson]
22. Metaethics / B. Value / 2. Values / b. Successful function
398 Each thing that has a function is for the sake of that function [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / a. Final purpose
394 An unworn sandal is in vain, but nothing in nature is in vain [Aristotle]
396 There has to be some goal, and not just movement to infinity [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 6. Early Matter Theories / f. Ancient elements
16102 Aether moves in circles and is imperishable; the four elements perish, and move in straight lines [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
17463 An element is what bodies are analysed into, and won't itself divide into something else [Aristotle]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 1. Causation
8430 Causal statements are used to explain, to predict, to control, to attribute responsibility, and in theories [Kim]
26. Natural Theory / C. Causation / 9. General Causation / c. Counterfactual causation
8396 Many counterfactuals have nothing to do with causation [Kim, by Tooley]
8429 Counterfactuals can express four other relations between events, apart from causation [Kim]
8428 Causation is not the only dependency relation expressed by counterfactuals [Kim]
26. Natural Theory / D. Laws of Nature / 9. Counterfactual Claims
4781 Many counterfactual truths do not imply causation ('if yesterday wasn't Monday, it isn't Tuesday') [Kim, by Psillos]
27. Natural Reality / A. Classical Physics / 1. Mechanics / a. Explaining movement
399 If the more you raise some earth the faster it moves, why does the whole earth not move? [Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 1. Void
20918 Void is a kind of place, so it can't explain place [Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 1. Cosmology
403 The earth must be round and of limited size, because moving north or south makes different stars visible [Aristotle]
402 The Earth must be spherical, because it casts a convex shadow on the moon [Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 3. The Beginning
1498 Everyone agrees that the world had a beginning, but thinkers disagree over whether it will end [Aristotle]
27. Natural Reality / E. Cosmology / 10. Multiverse
395 It seems possible that there exists a limited number of other worlds apart from this one [Aristotle]