“A thing changes in a sense associated with Russell (hence, at Cambridge) if it satisfies a description at one time that it does not satisfy at another. However, some changes are ‘merely’ Cambridge changes: if you outgrow me, then I satisfy the description of being as tall as you at one time, and I do not satisfy the description at another. So, by the Cambridge criterion, I have changed, but I need have undergone no robust or substantial change, for I may have stayed at exactly the same height.
“The term was introduced by P. T. Geach (Logic Matters, 1972); a possible application of the notion is to make the unchanging (substantial) nature of God compatible with his (merely Cambridge) changing relations to the temporal world.”
— Simon Blackburn, Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Oxford Univ. Press, 2008), 51.
I like that i had to think about this but that it made complete sense.
By: ladyswaye on December 26, 2010
at 4:13 pm
Yes, I think it’s a pretty clever observation too.
Blessings,
Chris
By: fleance7 on December 26, 2010
at 5:05 pm