4 ms·
An apple is an abstraction. It's a combination of chemicals bonded together. Those chemicals are composed of atoms which are bonded together, each of which are
by beebmam 6y ago
An apple is an abstraction. It's a combination of chemicals bonded together. Those chemicals are composed of atoms which are bonded together, each of which are composed of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Those particles are composed of quarks, and so on.
An apple is a singular thing because it is useful for us to think of an apple as a singular thing in most contexts. It is not a singular thing when it is more useful to look deeper.
- ralfd 6y agoThen take quarks. They are a fundamental particle with no known substructure. They are a single unit and they are countable.
- teucris 6y agoSure, but metaphysically, I’m positing that the whole concept of a unit or particle is a human thing.
- theinverseidea 6y agoAre you suggesting no one thing exists outside of your mind?
- teucris 6y agoYes. Not to say nothing exists though or that there is no meaning. To get really out of the realm of HN, no one thing can be proven to exist outside of our collective hallucination. That hallucination has reliable rules, thankfully, so things can be proven to exist inside it.