Searching for the right words

Feb 07, 2011 22:25


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meus_ovatio February 8 2011, 05:42:32 UTC
Legos aren't basic elements!

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essius February 8 2011, 05:56:18 UTC
Sure they are, relative to Lego formations. The negation of Lego basicity is relative, conversely, to the more fundamental particles of which Legos themselves are composed. In short, there can be more than one domain of basicity; basicity-attributions need not be (but can be) absolute.

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meus_ovatio February 8 2011, 06:16:38 UTC
Nope. Legos are themselves just arrangements of basic elements. One the lego is chewed upon and destroyed by a toddler, the lego isn't there. The lego is just gone.

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essius February 8 2011, 06:28:18 UTC
Yep. They are. Relative to Lego formations. The obvious truth of your statement that "Legos are themselves just arrangements of basic elements," which I already clearly accepted, does nothing to gainsay their basicity relative to Lego formations. As I said, we only deny that Legos are basic relative to the more fundamental particles of which Legos themselves are composed. We do not deny that Legos are the basis for Lego constructions.

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essius February 8 2011, 06:24:00 UTC
According to Aristotle, all corporeal reality is composed of the same basic matter-prime matter-whereas all matter in the physical sense is composed of prime matter and substantial form.

As Aquinas later puts it in his De ente et essentia:
    …because matter is the principle of individuation, it would perhaps seem to follow that essence, which embraces in itself simultaneously both form and matter, is merely particular and not universal. From this it would follow that universals have no definitions, assuming that essence is what is signified by the definition. Thus, we must point out that matter understood in the way we have thus far understood it is not the principle of individuation; only signate matter is the principle of individuation. I call signate matter matter considered under determinate dimensions. Signate matter is not included in the definition of man as man, but signate matter would be included in the definition of Socrates if Socrates had a definition. In the definition of man, however, is included non-signate matter: in ( ... )

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 08:17:20 UTC
"According to Aristotle, all corporeal reality is composed of the same basic matter-prime matter-whereas all matter in the physical sense is composed of prime matter and substantial form."

Is there any extant corporeal reality other than matter in the physical sense?

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essius February 8 2011, 08:20:34 UTC
Sorry, that should have read something more like this: According to Aristotle, all corporeal reality, all matter in the physical sense, is composed of the same basic stuff-i.e., prime matter (united to substantial form, which is not "stuff" but the determination thereof).

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 08:22:23 UTC
Ok, sure. But what I don't get is how things can be made out of something that doesn't exist. It's a conundrum.

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 06:34:50 UTC
"Please tell me if this set of ideas has a formal name"

Ontology.

"any resources you can point me to so that I may learn more about this topic."

This, this, and this will get you started.

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 07:34:42 UTC
Nah, he's great. The Kimean version of the Ship of Theseus:

If you replace the claims of materialism step-by-step until none of them remain, is it still materialism?

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my_wits_end February 8 2011, 07:00:57 UTC
I'd say atomism and mereology.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mereology/

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 07:56:03 UTC
"Not to mention..."

But... you just...


... )

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 07:40:33 UTC
Metaphysics? You mean like Tarot cards and homeopathy?

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anosognosia February 8 2011, 08:06:42 UTC
"This is like one of those plants at a motivational speech that feeds the speaker..."


... )

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