Destruction, Alteration, Simples and World Stuff
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10692396 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Crawford L Elder (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2003 |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 210 |
| Pages | 24-38 |
| Publication date | 2003-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-9213.00293 |
| OpenAlex | W2041023192 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 11 |
When a tree is chopped to bits, or a sweater unraveled, its matter still exists. Since antiquity, it has sometimes been inferred that nothing really has been destroyed: what has happened is just that this matter has assumed new form. Contemporary versions hold that apparent destruction of a familiar object is just rearrangement of microparticles or of 'physical simples' or 'world stuff'. But if destruction of a familiar object is genuinely to be reduced to mere alteration of something else, we must identify an alternation proper to the career, the course of existence, of this something else; relatedly, the alteration must be characterizable without asserting the existence of the familiar object. All contemporary views fail one of these requirements
Mathematics · Philosophy · Slime Mold and Myxomycetes Research
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |