29 ideas
1597 | Thales was the first western thinker to believe the arché was intelligible [Roochnik on Thales] |
15957 | Essential definitions show the differences that discriminate things, and make them what they are [Boyle] |
17486 | Supervenience is simply modally robust property co-variance [Hendry] |
15965 | Boyle attacked a contemporary belief that powers were occult things [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
16735 | In the 17th century, 'disposition' usually just means the spatial arrangement of parts [Boyle, by Pasnau] |
16034 | Form is not a separate substance, but just the manner, modification or 'stamp' of matter [Boyle] |
15953 | To cite a substantial form tells us what produced the effect, but not how it did it [Boyle] |
3013 | Nothing is stronger than necessity, which rules everything [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |
15962 | Boyle's term 'texture' is not something you feel, but is unobservable structures of particles [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
15964 | Boyle's secondary qualities are not illusory, or 'in the mind' [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
16736 | Explanation is generally to deduce it from something better known, which comes in degrees [Boyle] |
15960 | Explanation is deducing a phenomenon from some nature better known to us [Boyle] |
17481 | Nuclear charge (plus laws) explains electron structure and spectrum, but not vice versa [Hendry] |
16737 | The best explanations get down to primary basics, but others go less deep [Boyle] |
1494 | Thales said water is the first principle, perhaps from observing that food is moist [Thales, by Aristotle] |
15952 | The corpuscles just have shape, size and motion, which explains things without 'sympathies' or 'forces' [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
15972 | The corpuscular theory allows motion, but does not include forces between the particles [Boyle, by Alexander,P] |
17478 | Maybe two kinds are the same if there is no change of entropy on isothermal mixing [Hendry] |
17484 | Maybe the nature of water is macroscopic, and not in the microstructure [Hendry] |
17479 | The nature of an element must survive chemical change, so it is the nucleus, not the electrons [Hendry] |
17485 | Maybe water is the smallest part of it that still counts as water (which is H2O molecules) [Hendry] |
1713 | Thales must have thought soul causes movement, since he thought magnets have soul [Thales, by Aristotle] |
17482 | Compounds can differ with the same collection of atoms, so structure matters too [Hendry] |
17483 | Water continuously changes, with new groupings of molecules [Hendry] |
17476 | Elements survive chemical change, and are tracked to explain direction and properties [Hendry] |
17477 | Defining elements by atomic number allowed atoms of an element to have different masses [Hendry] |
17480 | Generally it is nuclear charge (not nuclear mass) which determines behaviour [Hendry] |
15961 | I don't see how mere moving matter can lead to the bodies of men and animals, and especially their seeds [Boyle] |
1742 | Thales said the gods know our wrong thoughts as well as our evil actions [Thales, by Diog. Laertius] |