Transcript Lecture III

LECTURE 3
INDIVIDUALITY:
MONISM
SHOT PUT: AN INDIVIDUAL THING
A KNOT: AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
HOLES?
AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
IS AN ARMY AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
IS AN EVENT AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
WATER: A STUFF
Colors and shapes are “universals”
(properties, attributes, accidents, modes)
INDIVIDUALITY
WHAT IS AN INDIVIDUAL THING?
NOT: MODIFICATIONS OF THINGS
NOT: MERE COLLECTIONS OF THINGS
NOT: EVENTS
NOT: STUFFS
NOT: UNIVERSALS (OR “ACCIDENTS”)
MONISM
THERE IS ONLY ONE SUBSTANTIAL THING (“THE
ONE”, “THE ABSOLUTE”, “THE ABSOLUTE
MIND”, “THE ABSOLUTE IDEA”, “GOD”,…)
TWO WESTERN MONISTS:
BARUCH SPINOZA
F. H. BRADLEY
SOME WESTERN AND EASTERN MYSTICS
VAN INWAGEN’S CHARACTERIZATION
OF MONISM
• “THERE IS A SINGLE
INDIVIDUAL THING AND THAT
THING COULD NOT HAVE
POSSIBLY CO-EXISTED WITH
ANY OTHER INDIVIDUAL
THING.”
TWO FORMS OF MONISM
(1) ORDINARY “THINGS” DO NOT EXIST IN THEIR
OWN RIGHT – THEY ARE MODES,
MODIFICATIONS, OR ACCIDENTS OF THE ONE.
(SPINOZA)
(2) ORDINARY “THINGS” HAVE NO KIND OF
BEING AT ALL – NOT EVEN AS
MODIFICATIONS. THE BELIEF THAT THERE
ARE MANY ENTITIES IS A COMPLETE ILLUSION.
(F. H. BRADLEY & THE ABSOLUTE IDEALISTS)
BARUCH (BENEDICT) SPINOZA
(1632-1677)
THE OTHER RATIONALISTS
RENE DESCARTES
1596-1650
GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNIZ
(1646-1716)
FRANCIS H. BRADLEY
(1846-1924)
SPINOZA’S CRUCIAL PREMISS
“IF A THING IS NOT ABSOLUTELY INDEPENDENT
OF EVERYTHING ELSE, THEN IT MUST BE A
MERE MODIFICATION OF SOMETHING
ABSOLUTELY INDEPENDENT OF EVERYTHING
ELSE.”