[lit-ideas] Re: Philosophical points
- From: "Phil Enns" <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 15:37:27 +0800
Donal McEvoy wrote:
"I would suggest that 'subject to death' is the primary meaning of mortal."
I have and am happy to continue to agree. What I don't see is the
identification of 'subject to death' with 'a point in time when
someone dies'. As I have repeatedly noted, 'subject to death' strikes
me as being as being primarily about the means of one's death rather
than a point in time. In other words, the primary meaning of 'subject
to death' is that some person is subject to death if they would die
should a certain event happen to them, and here one could provide a
list of events that would normally bring about death. Being subject
to something refers to what happens to a person, not when it happens.
I had written:
"If the word 'mortal' is to tell us something interesting about any
particular example within the set of 'all men', then the sentence "all
men are mortal" cannot be formalized with the proposition "For all x,
if x is a man then there exists a time t such that x dies at t".
to which Donal replied:
"Why this is so is left unclear."
Let me make it more clear. I am a mortal. How does the time of my death exist?
Donal continues:
"Death is an important fact of life."
Fact? What a curious use of the word. It isn't a fact of my life.
So, how is death an important fact of any person's life? To be
painfully clear, I am interested in how the word 'fact' is being used
here.
Donal again:
"Death happens at some point in time; and that death occurs at some
point in time (rather than outside time) is not 'idiosyncratic' but
the ordinary view."
Donal elides the fact that everyone will die with the supposed 'fact'
that there exists for every person a time when they will die. The
issue I have raised is the latter, not the former. I am happy to
agree with Donal regarding the former, but the latter strikes me as
being patent nonsense. As to why it is nonsense, I cannot conceive of
how Donal would demonstrate the fact of the time of someone's death,
where that person is still alive.
Sincerely,
Phil Enns
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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