Psychology Dictionary of Arguments

Home Screenshot Tabelle Begriffe

 
Four Dimensionalism, Philosophy: The so-called four-dimensionalism is represented by a coordinate system with three space axes and one time axis. The coordinate system represents events by a point, indicating position in space and point in time. Perpetual objects are represented by extended lines. The path of these lines correspond to the object’s changes in space. The thickness of these lines corresponds to the size of the object. By way of cross sections of these world lines (objects and their passage of time), the so-called time slices, the momentary state of the objects can be found. The time slice of a person is not flat, but identical with the person in a moment. See also coordinate system, image, representation, space-time, time, space, change, motion, reference systems.
_____________
Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

W.V.O. Quine on Four-Dimensionalism - Dictionary of Arguments

X 54
Four Dimensionalism/Quine: E.g. a shrinking body tapers into the future, a growing one tapers sharply into the past. That makes tense formation superfluous. It always has to be in the present tense - so you can quantify over objects that never exist simultaneously. ((s) Time slice/(s): is not flat like a slice of a sausage, but a complete body at a point of time.)
XIII 75
Four Dimensionalism/Possibilities/possible objects/Possibilia/Quine: four dimensionalism creates a place in the sun for all future actualities, however unpredictable, but it does not give comfort or help for mere possibilities.
XIII 197
Four Dimensionalism/Change/Quine: it is wrong, as some have claimed, that in four dimensionalism (not Quine's expression) there is no change and instead there is only an eternally static reality.
Change: still exists, it is merely embodied (incorporated). It is now simply said that the earlier stages of a body differ from the later ones, just as its upper stages differ from the lower ones. The later stages are just as inaccessible from the earlier ones as the lower ones from the upper ones! ((s) >Facts are not necessary).
Time/Time Use/Tense/Logic/Quine: Time is not present in pure mathematics and logic. If it is brought in, then by predicates like "later than".
Four-Dimensionalism: corresponds to this extension of logical notation by predicates like "later than".
Time/Logic/Time Logic: alternatively one could take time into logic, but this would be very cumbersome and would only be appropriate if one wanted to investigate everyday language.
Time/Time Use/Tense/Logic/Quine: Time is not present in pure mathematics and logic. If it is brought in, then by predicates like "later than".
Four-dimensionalism: corresponds to this extension of logical notation by predicates like "later than".
Time/logic/time logic: alternatively one could take time into logic, but this would be very cumbersome and would only be appropriate if one wanted to investigate everyday language.
Time/Spatialization/Space Time/Quine Dimensionism/Quine: shouldn't one be surprised about relations between things that no longer exist? For example Mark Anton and Cleopatra are both dead, the relation between them existed earlier, even if it no longer exists today.
Question: what about the great-great-grandfather relation? ((s) here always only a part exists).
For example the class of the great generals in history: the elements hardly exist at the same time.
XIII 198
Simplest Solution: to see them all as inhabitants of space-time. As timelessly coexistent.
Time/Translation/Quine: we translate by moving into the 4th dimension.
Time/Dimension/Quine: time as the 4th dimension is treated on the same level as the spatial dimensions, but in an important sense it is independent of them:
Space/Quine: here we also distinguish directions between the axes, unlike in time.
N.B.: we can amalgamate time with space by saying e.g. so and so many miles correspond to one hour; we haven't used that yet, but we need it in relativity theory.
Relativity Theory/Space-time/Relativity/third/Quine: For example two piles at a distance of 5 meters: can be described differently by different observers.
Theory of Relativity: here we have spatiotemporal diagonals. It does not allow any measure,
XIII 199
not even over all four dimensions simultaneously, which is analogous to the distance and independent of the velocity of the observer.
Interval/Solution/Quine: instead of the distance there can be an interval, but it is different: it can be 0, even if the events are spatially far apart.
Four Dimensionalism/Quine: we maintain it completely independent of relativity.
XIII 221
Square Measure to the Square/Quine: square measure should have four spatial dimensions! Unlike liters per hour: ((s) because now we have to calculate m² x 2!).
Fourdimensionality/Quine: For example, if we take time as the fourth dimension, the square of a surface is then
XIII 222
the spatiotemporal size of a cube over time, the temporal equivalent of the edge length, whatever that is.
Squares of surfaces/Relativity Theory/Relativity/Einstein/Quine: Example E = mc²:
c: is distance by time
c²: is the square of the distance divided by the square of the time, or surface by square hour.
E = mc² thus equates energy with area tons per square hour.
V 182
Object/Ontology/Quine: great progress: four dimensionalism, four dimensional spatio-temporal objects.
We are so body-oriented that we do not take the Evening Star and the Morning Star as phases of Venus either, they are simply Venus and can be referred to with one or the other term depending on the time of day. Similarly:
Example Carnap: Rumber and Titisee: is the same lake, depending on the weather. Example Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
N.B.: they would not be seen as complementary temporal parts of an entire nameless person, but as an identical person with two names.
Four Dimensionalism/Quine: for example, one can identify a battle with the physical object, which consists of the union of the corresponding time segments of all participants.
Or one can make substance terms (mass terms) into singular terms, each naming a diffuse physical object. ((s) Example Putnam: Water: all H2O in the universe).
V 184
Four Dimensionalism/Ontology/Quine: ((s) here still in the classical separation matter/space) the points are replaced by the point moments. For example, purely spatial squares, i.e. squares perpendicular to the time axis, are then identified only instantaneously and not over time.
Probably there is still the above time-consuming square, but now oriented as a three-dimensional square parallelepiped of infinite length, parallel to the time axis of space time or someone's time axis.
Vs: 1. inelegance of the double ontology of matter and space.
2. (more severe): invalidity of a theory of absolute position. Without it, an ontology of purely spatial or spatiotemporal manifolds seems inconsistent.
V 185
Solution/Quine: we try to construct the manifolds somehow according to physical objects. Maybe with the help of numbers and measurements, a
Point: is then a number triple of real numbers, a space-time point is a quadruple.
Squares etc. are identified as classes of such triples or quadruples according to analytical geometry.
Until then there is no talk of physical objects or physical space. Next step:
Measurement/Measuring: Connection with objects by using pure numbers by measurement.
For example, if you say that four villages are located so that they form the points of a square, you only say something about the relationships between the distances: that four of the six are equal and the other two are also equal.
>Measurements/Quine.
Manifoldness: with this we got rid of the ontology of manifolds, but we are now dealing with much more than physical objects: with numbers, pairs of numbers, triples, quadruples, and classes of such. Thus we have abstract objects. So we still have a double ontology.
Abstract/Quine: but we would have needed the ontology of abstract objects for many purposes anyway:
V 186
E.g. to talk about squares etc.
Manifoldness/Quine: these were only single squares, circles, etc.
Form: Forms would be classes of such. Thus objects of higher abstraction.


_____________
Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

Quine I
W.V.O. Quine
Word and Object, Cambridge/MA 1960
German Edition:
Wort und Gegenstand Stuttgart 1980

Quine II
W.V.O. Quine
Theories and Things, Cambridge/MA 1986
German Edition:
Theorien und Dinge Frankfurt 1985

Quine III
W.V.O. Quine
Methods of Logic, 4th edition Cambridge/MA 1982
German Edition:
Grundzüge der Logik Frankfurt 1978

Quine V
W.V.O. Quine
The Roots of Reference, La Salle/Illinois 1974
German Edition:
Die Wurzeln der Referenz Frankfurt 1989

Quine VI
W.V.O. Quine
Pursuit of Truth, Cambridge/MA 1992
German Edition:
Unterwegs zur Wahrheit Paderborn 1995

Quine VII
W.V.O. Quine
From a logical point of view Cambridge, Mass. 1953

Quine VII (a)
W. V. A. Quine
On what there is
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (b)
W. V. A. Quine
Two dogmas of empiricism
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (c)
W. V. A. Quine
The problem of meaning in linguistics
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (d)
W. V. A. Quine
Identity, ostension and hypostasis
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (e)
W. V. A. Quine
New foundations for mathematical logic
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (f)
W. V. A. Quine
Logic and the reification of universals
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (g)
W. V. A. Quine
Notes on the theory of reference
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (h)
W. V. A. Quine
Reference and modality
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VII (i)
W. V. A. Quine
Meaning and existential inference
In
From a Logical Point of View, , Cambridge, MA 1953

Quine VIII
W.V.O. Quine
Designation and Existence, in: The Journal of Philosophy 36 (1939)
German Edition:
Bezeichnung und Referenz
In
Zur Philosophie der idealen Sprache, J. Sinnreich (Hg), München 1982

Quine IX
W.V.O. Quine
Set Theory and its Logic, Cambridge/MA 1963
German Edition:
Mengenlehre und ihre Logik Wiesbaden 1967

Quine X
W.V.O. Quine
The Philosophy of Logic, Cambridge/MA 1970, 1986
German Edition:
Philosophie der Logik Bamberg 2005

Quine XII
W.V.O. Quine
Ontological Relativity and Other Essays, New York 1969
German Edition:
Ontologische Relativität Frankfurt 2003

Quine XIII
Willard Van Orman Quine
Quiddities Cambridge/London 1987


Send Link

Authors A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   Z  


Concepts A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   U   V   W   Y   Z