RE: A question about Thomism
August 9, 2023 at 11:38 pm
(This post was last modified: August 9, 2023 at 11:44 pm by Belacqua.)
(August 9, 2023 at 11:30 pm)LinuxGal Wrote:(August 9, 2023 at 11:08 pm)Belacqua Wrote: There are two kinds of priority: temporal and essential. The essential type is sometimes called ontological.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontologica...reference.
This view is not compatible with modern physics, which has space and time unified in a single field, identical with the gravitational field, where a "prior" event is defined as a point on or within the past light-code of any given event. Thus the red flag of category mistake.
No, it's entirely compatible with modern physics.
Did you read the Wikipedia page? It has some examples.
Quote:The most ubiquitous model is the dependence model of ontological priority which states that "A is prior to B" is true just in case B depends on A for its existence, as in the case where the color of a particular being depends on that being existing for the color-quality inhering in it to exist. An entity ontologically depends on another entity if the first entity cannot exist without the second entity. Ontologically independent entities, on the other hand, can exist all by themselves.[1] For example, the surface of an apple cannot exist without the apple and so depends on it ontologically.[2] Entities often characterized as ontologically dependent include properties, which depend on their bearers, and boundaries, which depend on the entity they demarcate from its surroundings.[3]
Our sun is ontologically dependent on hydrogen. (In other words, hydrogen is ontologically prior -- this is nothing to do with time.) If our sun disappeared, hydrogen would still exist. If hydrogen disappeared, our sun would disappear too.
A T-shirt is ontologically prior to its color. If its color stopped existing (e.g. if you dyed it) the T-shirt would still exist. But if the T-shirt stopped existing (e.g. if you burned it) its color would also stop existing.
