{"id":6691,"date":"2021-03-05T11:21:13","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T11:21:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stuartpoetry.art\/?p=6691"},"modified":"2021-03-05T11:21:13","modified_gmt":"2021-03-05T11:21:13","slug":"steam-locomotive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/05\/steam-locomotive\/","title":{"rendered":"(Steam Locomotive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a knife said George<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It has a wooden handle<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I have knife said Polly<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It has a metal handle<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I looked at them both and noted that I did not care what material the handle was made from<\/p>\n

\n

The blade was the most important part of the knife as without the blade would be a different thing and not a knife any more<\/p>\n

\n

The blade was its essential property and gives it its defining function<\/p>\n

\n

Plato and Aristotle believed this to be true<\/p>\n

\n

\n

I have a knife said George<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It has a wooden handle but no blade<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is therefore not a knife<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I have knife said Polly<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It has a metal handle but no blade<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

It is therefore not a knife<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The item that we hold in our hands has no defining function and therefore does not exist<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I handed both George and Polly two sharp blades but asked for the handles in return<\/p>\n

\n

Now that you possess the blades but not the handles do you each possess a knife<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The siblings stayed silent and looked at me<\/p>\n

\n

The answer is no as you both once possessed handles and latterly you have been given blades<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

But neither broadly have a defining function<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

They only function together like our lungs and other organs<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

I gave George and Polly the handles but did not request the return of the blades<\/p>\n

\n

After a while they had both reconstructed their knives and handed them to me in exchange for a steam locomotive<\/p>\n

\n

I was too polite to refuse their offer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a knife said George \u00a0 It has a wooden handle \u00a0 \u00a0 I have knife said Polly \u00a0 It has a metal handle \u00a0 \u00a0 I looked at them both and noted that I did not care what material the handle was made from The blade was the most important part of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuartmillerosborne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}