(August 3, 2015 at 9:43 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: Hume presents the two as discrete, but not necessarily events. The classic example of a billiard ball hitting another represents two discrete parts, the cause - the first billiard ball hitting the second - and the effect - the movement of the struck billiard ball. They are considered discrete because they are.That is exactly his mistake in a nutshell. There is only one event of which the cause is the first billiard ball and the effect is the transfer of momentum to the second. Cause: ball #1. Effect: transfer of momentum to ball #2.
Aquinas 1, Hume 0
(August 3, 2015 at 9:43 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: Inventing attributes of matter like a class of dispositional properties only makes things worse..This adds nothing to our understanding.Glass is a substance that has many properties of which one is the disposition of fragility. When a dispositional property is identified it tells you that substance X when subjected to conditions Y will consistently react in a specific way barring any other influences. That seems like a useful kind of knowledge.
