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(1994) Philosophy, mathematics and modern physics, Dordrecht, Springer.
The most obvious thing about the universe in which we find ourselves is its structure. Indeed, according to the basic philosophical viewpoint adopted by thinkers such as Berkeley, Leibniz and Mach, it would not really be possible to speak of the universe at all if it did not exhibit differentiating structure and qualities. Leibniz's monadology equates existence with variety: monads are defined by and simultaneously distinguished from other monads by virtue of their attributes and nothing else. You cannot remove the attributes of a thing and leave some mysterious "thisness" (haeccity). Remove the attributes and nothing is left.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-78808-6_8
Full citation:
Barbour, J. (1994)., On the origin of structure in the universe, in E. Rudolph & I. Stamatescu (eds.), Philosophy, mathematics and modern physics, Dordrecht, Springer, pp. 120-131.