Some Pre-Socratic Ideas of Change and Permanence

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Belinda
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Re: Some Pre-Socratic Ideas of Change and Permanence

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Diane Kendall wrote:

Diana Kendall
When change is viewed as a continuous set of alterations in the same thing, and not as the substitution of one single item by another, questions arise. What is this “same” thing that persists and yet is different from what it was? What are the “changes” that occur without altering the identity of this “same” thing?

Many of the pre-Socratic thinkers of the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. were particularly interested in such questions. They wanted to make clear what gives the universe permanency in the face of all its changing aspects, whether these were periodic as in the case of the seasons or seemingly unpredictable as with the first raindrop in a particular spot.
The same thing that persists through its changes is severally called nature, or existence itself, or God. Spinoza described the changing aspect of nature as Natura Naturans, i.e. nature naturing itself. I'd better tell Spinoza's name for the other aspect of nature ,that we are perhaps more familiar with, and which is Natura Naturata i.e. all the differentiated things of nature.

Periodic phenomena and also apparently contingent phenomena are all without exception the workings of a great nomic connectivity. Strong determinism is far from being as trivial as billiard -ball causal chains.



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