Atoms Exist

Famous quotes containing the words atoms and/or exist:

    Scatter my ashes, strew them in the air:
    Lord since thou know’st where all these atoms are,
    I’m hopeful thou’lt recover once my dust,
    And confident thou’lt raise me with the just.
    —James Graham Marquess of Montrose (1612–1650)

    Let’s call something a rigid designator if in every possible world it designates the same object, a non-rigid or accidental designator if that is not the case. Of course we don’t require that the objects exist in all possible worlds.... When we think of a property as essential to an object we usually mean that it is true of that object in any case where it would have existed. A rigid designator of a necessary existent can be called strongly rigid.
    Saul Kripke (b. 1940)