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| 16608 | Ockham was an anti-realist about the categories |
| Full Idea: Ockham is the scholastic paradigm of anti-realism with respect to the categories. | |||
| From: report of William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 05.3 | |||
| A reaction: These are the ten categories mentioned in Aristotle's book 'Categories'. |
| 16599 | Ockham says matter must be extended, so we don't need Quantity |
| Full Idea: Ockham regards Quantity as an entirely superfluous ontological category, …because matter is intrinsically extended. | |||
| From: report of William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320]) by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 04.4 |
| 16681 | Matter gets its quantity from condensation and rarefaction, which is just local motion |
| Full Idea: Matter is made to have a greater or lesser quantity not through its receiving any absolute accident, but through condensation and rarefaction alone. Parts come more or less close together, which can happen with local motion. | |||
| From: William of Ockham (Summula philosophiae naturalis [1320], I.13), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 15.1 | |||
| A reaction: This is Ockham at his most modern, rejecting the odd idea of Quantity in favour of a modern corpuscular view of the mere motions of matter. |