Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Anaxarchus, Baruch de Spinoza and Thomas Mautner

expand these ideas     |    start again     |     choose another area for these philosophers

display all the ideas for this combination of philosophers

16 ideas

10. Modality / A. Necessity / 10. Impossibility
17183 Things are impossible if they imply contradiction, or their production lacks an external cause [Spinoza]
10. Modality / B. Possibility / 5. Contingency
4299 Contingency is an illusion, resulting from our inadequate understanding [Spinoza, by Cottingham]
4839 Reason naturally regards things as necessary, and only imagination considers them contingent [Spinoza]
4824 We only call things 'contingent' in relation to the imperfection of our knowledge [Spinoza]
10. Modality / B. Possibility / 9. Counterfactuals
6886 Counterfactuals are not true, they are merely valid [Mautner]
6882 Counterfactuals presuppose a belief (or a fact) that the condition is false [Mautner]
6885 Counterfactuals are true if in every world close to actual where p is the case, q is also the case [Mautner]
6884 Counterfactuals say 'If it had been, or were, p, then it would be q' [Mautner]
6883 Maybe counterfactuals are only true if they contain valid inference from premisses [Mautner]
10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 1. Sources of Necessity
4822 Divine nature makes all existence and operations necessary, and nothing is contingent [Spinoza]
10. Modality / C. Sources of Modality / 6. Necessity from Essence
17182 Necessity is in reference to essence or to cause [Spinoza]
5449 Essentialism is often identified with belief in 'de re' necessary truths [Mautner]
10. Modality / D. Knowledge of Modality / 4. Conceivable as Possible / a. Conceivable as possible
4818 People who are ignorant of true causes imagine anything can change into anything else [Spinoza]
20310 Error does not result from imagining, but from lacking the evidence of impossibility [Spinoza]
10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / a. Transworld identity
17208 A horse would be destroyed if it were changed into a man or an insect [Spinoza]
10. Modality / E. Possible worlds / 3. Transworld Objects / e. Possible Objects
17209 A thing is contingent if nothing in its essence determines whether or not it exists [Spinoza]