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A relative change occurs when some item changes a relation. This
Element examines how Plato, Aristotle, Stoics and Sextus Empiricus
approached relative change. Relative change is puzzling because the
following three propositions each seem true but cannot be true
together: (1) No relative changes are intrinsic changes; (2) Only
intrinsic changes are proper changes; (3) Some relative changes are
proper changes. Plato's Theaetetus and Phaedo property relative
change. I argue that these dialogues assume relative changes to be
intrinsic changes, so denying (1). Aristotle responds differently,
by denying (3) that relative change is proper change. The Stoics
claimed that some non-intrinsic changes are changes (denying (2)).
Finally, I discuss Sextus' argument that relative change shows that
there are no relatives at all.
Ideas about relativity underlie much ancient Greek philosophy, from
Protagorean relativism, to Plato's theory of Forms, Aristotle's
category scheme, and relational logic. In Ancient Relativity
Matthew Duncombe explores how ancient philosophers, particularly
Plato, Aristotle, the Stoics, and Sextus Empiricus, understood the
phenomenon and how their theories of relativity affected, and were
affected by, their broader philosophical outlooks. He argues that
ancient philosophers shared a close-knit family of views referred
to as 'constitutive relativity', whereby a relative is not simply
linked by a relation but is constituted by it. Plato exploits this
view in some key arguments concerning the Forms and the partition
of the soul. Aristotle adopts the constitutive view in his
discussions of relativity in Categories 7 and the Topics and
retains it in Metaphysics Delta 15. Duncombe goes on to examine the
role relativity plays in Stoic philosophy, especially Stoic physics
and metaphysics, and the way Sextus Empiricus thinks about
relativity, which does not appeal to the nature of relatives but
rather to how we conceive of things as correlative.
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