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Single Idea 14228

[filed under theme 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 6. Nihilism about Objects ]

Full Idea

Van Inwagen says 'there are no tables', and 'there are tables' means 'there are some things arranged tablewise'. Presumably 'there are no tables' negates the latter claim, saying no things are arranged tablewise. But he should think that is false.

Gist of Idea

If there are no tables, but tables are things arranged tablewise, the denial of tables is a contradiction

Source

comment on Peter van Inwagen (Material Beings [1990], 10) by David Liggins - Nihilism without Self-Contradiction 3

Book Ref

'Being: Developments in Contemporary Metaphysics', ed/tr. Le Poidevin,R [CUP 2008], p.182

A Reaction

Liggins's nice paper shows that Van Inwagen is in a potential state of contradiction when he starts saying that there are no tables, but that there are things arranged tablewise, and that they amount to tables. Liggins offers him an escape.

Related Idea

Idea 14227 We could refer to tables as 'xs that are arranged tablewise' [Inwagen]

The 30 ideas with the same theme [denial that there are such things as unified objects]:

13782 Everything gives way, and nothing stands fast [Heraclitus]
13209 There is no coming-to-be of anything, but only mixing and separating [Empedocles, by Aristotle]
15855 If we see everything as separate, we can then give no account of it [Plato]
1687 Why are being terrestrial and a biped combined in the definition of man, but being literate and musical aren't? [Aristotle]
12953 Fluidity is basic, and we divide into bodies according to our needs [Leibniz]
7189 Maybe there are only subjects, and 'objects' result from relations between subjects [Nietzsche]
7207 Counting needs unities, but that doesn't mean they exist; we borrowed it from the concept of 'I' [Nietzsche]
18314 In language we treat 'ego' as a substance, and it is thus that we create the concept 'thing' [Nietzsche]
18987 A 'thing' is simply carved out of reality for human purposes [James]
13935 We only accept 'things' within a language with formation, testing and acceptance rules [Carnap]
8969 We should abandon absolute identity, confining it to within some category [Geach, by Hawthorne]
15272 The good criticism of substance by Humeans also loses them the vital concept of a thing [Harré/Madden]
17565 Nihilism says composition between single things is impossible [Inwagen]
14228 If there are no tables, but tables are things arranged tablewise, the denial of tables is a contradiction [Liggins on Inwagen]
14468 Actions by artefacts and natural bodies are disguised cooperations, so we don't need them [Inwagen]
13384 Objects need conventions for their matter, their temporal possibility, and their spatial possibility [Jubien]
13385 Basically, the world doesn't have ready-made 'objects'; we carve objects any way we like [Jubien]
4206 Conventionalists see the world as an amorphous lump without identities, but are we part of the lump? [Lowe]
14229 Merricks agrees that there are no composite objects, but offers a different semantics [Merricks, by Liggins]
6142 The 'folk' way of carving up the world is not intrinsically better than quite arbitrary ways [Merricks]
14472 If atoms 'arranged baseballwise' break a window, that analytically entails that a baseball did it [Merricks, by Thomasson]
14469 Overdetermination: the atoms do all the causing, so the baseball causes no breakage [Merricks]
21652 Our perceptual beliefs are about ordinary objects, not about simples arranged chair-wise [Hofweber]
14927 Physics seems to imply that we must give up self-subsistent individuals [Ladyman/Ross]
14944 There is no single view of individuals, because different sciences operate on different scales [Ladyman/Ross]
14946 There are no cats in quantum theory, and no mountains in astrophysics [Ladyman/Ross]
21651 It is analytic that if simples are arranged chair-wise, then there is a chair [Thomasson, by Hofweber]
14467 Ordinary objects are rejected, to avoid contradictions, or for greater economy in thought [Thomasson]
14479 To individuate people we need conventions, but conventions are made up by people [Thomasson]
14486 Eliminativists haven't found existence conditions for chairs, beyond those of the word 'chair' [Thomasson]