Peeters, Jonathan (Author)
University of Colorado at Boulder
Pasnau, Robert
Edition Details: Advisor: Pasnau, Robert
Physical Details: 142 pp.
Language: English
A fairly common thought in the 17th and 18th centuries was that in order for a thing to exist, that thing must either be a true unity or an aggregate of true unities. In other words, true unities are the fundamental building blocks out of which all existent things are made. One can find such thinking in philosophers as disparate as Leibniz and Hume. But, what criteria must a thing meet in order to be classified as a true unity? Here's Hume on the subject: "But the unity, which can exist alone, and whose existence is necessary to that of all number, is of another kind, and must be perfectly indivisible, and incapable of being resolved into any lesser unity." (Hume 1978, 31). Hence, a unity needs to be the sort of thing that is not divisible into further beings - that is, it must be atomic. At first glance, the idea that the fundamental bits of reality must be indivisible might seem like a relatively unproblematic requirement. However, consider extended substances. The thought that extended things are composed out of atoms is subject to a famous dilemma. Are the atoms which compose the extended thing extended or extensionless? On the former horn of the dilemma, given that the atoms are extended, it is hard to see how they could fail to have parts. But, if the atoms have parts, how is it that they are indivisible? Doesn't the existence of parts ensure that the entity is possibly (in the broadest metaphysical sense of 'possibly') divided? And if they are not indivisible, they cannot count as the true unities that explain the existence of the extended thing. Is the latter horn of the dilemma any more attractive? Well, if the atoms are extensionless they have a pretty strong case for being indivisible and hence meeting the requirement for being a true unity. However, it is difficult to see how extension could be formed out of extensionless first elements. In my dissertation I grapple with three different atomist approaches to answering this dilemma.
...MoreDescription Cited in ProQuest Diss. & Thes. . ProQuest Doc. ID 304867639.
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