On Sameness and Identity: A Psychological Study: Being a Contribution to the Foundations of a Theory of KnowledgeFullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
On Sameness and Identity: A Psychological Study: Being a Contribution to the Foundations of a Theory of Knowledge
Fullerton, George Stuart
Knowledge, Theory of
One cannot be a whole, and cannot have parts, for then it would not
be one, but many. But if it has no parts it has no beginning, middle,
or end, and is formless. It is then in no place, for it cannot be in
itself, since the container must be different from the thing contained;
nor can it be in other, for it would have to be encircled by that
other, and touched in many parts, which is impossible. It follows that
it can neither be at rest nor in motion. Not in motion; for it cannot
have change in itself, or it would no longer be one; nor can it have
motion in place, whether circular motion upon a centre or motion from
place to place; the former for the reason that circular motion implies
a centre and parts around the centre; and the latter because one is
in no place: and as to coming into being in anything, which may be
regarded as a kind of motion, while doing this it would have to be part
in and part not in, which is impossible. It cannot be at rest, for one
is never in the same; to be in the same, is to be in something which
is the same, and one cannot be in anything. Nor, farther, can one be
the same with itself or other, nor other than itself or other. If other
than itself it would not be one; and if the same with other it would
be that other, and not itself. On the other hand only other can be
the other of other, and not one; and the one cannot be the same with
itself, for the nature of the one is not the nature of the same, since
that which becomes the same with the many does not become one. Finally,
one cannot be like or unlike itself or other, for likeness is sameness
of affections, and sameness is not oneness; one must, however, have no
affection except oneness, or it becomes more than one. It cannot, then,
have the same affections as itself or other. As, for the same reason,
it cannot have other affections than itself or other, it cannot be
unlike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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