The momentariness of entities

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Andre Pais, modified 7 Years ago at 3/12/17 5:54 PM
Created 7 Years ago at 3/12/17 5:53 PM

The momentariness of entities

Posts: 14 Join Date: 3/27/15 Recent Posts
Hi guys.

Not sure if this is in the right place...

Can anyone comment the next couple of passages? Thanks.

"Functioning entities are known to be impermanent, that is, to exist only momentarily. Any entity, therefore, actually is a succession of momentary events, each following the other with inconceivable rapidity, and constituting a "thing" only insofar as there is a certain similarity from one moment to the next."

"...the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness, whereby "existence" only is predicated of efficient (arthakriya) entities, and efficiency only can be predicated of momentary entities since an entity that is not inherently and instantly destructible cannot be destroyed, hence is immutable, and what is immutable cannot interact with what is successive, as entities manifestly are. Buddhist arguments for momentariness were highly controversial,(62) being open to criticism for (a) vitiating causality by denying continuity and (b) begging the question by defining existence in such a way (as a particular type of efficacity) that only momentary entities could fulfill the definition."