event

A change or happening. The central debate in the philosophy of events is whether they are to be thought of as individuals, like objects, capable of date and place and capable of being described in different ways, or whether they are more like propositions or facts, whose identity depends essentially on the concepts in which they are framed. On the former model it may prove easier to understand how events can cause things, and how one event (e.g. a commotion in the brain) may be identical with another (e.g. being struck by a thought). The latter model assimilates events to facts, so that just as it can be a fact that the admiral did not arrive, his non-arrival can be a significant event (not at all a non-event) which may have its own causes and effects. Similarly there can exist disjunctive events (John's going to India or China) or quantificational events (Mary's finding a job, i.e. there being some job-finding by Mary).