welcome back to cars.org. Today, we're going to be continuing with our series dumbfounding definitions, diing distinctions, and diabolical doctrines, a series sorting through some of the jargon of philosophy. In this video, we're going to be taking a look at what is a Cambridge change. Now, a Cambridge change is a type of change that occurs when different sets of predicates apply to an object at different points in time. This is a broad definition of change that is inclusive of both changes to the substantive nature of an object, as well as changes in the relationships between that object and other things. Let's take a look. So, the term is called a Cambridge change because it's associated with Bertrand Russell, as well as the linguistic turn in analytic philosophy towards philosophy more focused on the philosophy of language. This can be seen clearly in the way that this definition of change is formulated. Instead of talking about the object's metaphysical properties as primary, it focuses on the linguistic components, the predicates that can be applied to a

subject now substantive changes. In fact, changes to the object itself are generally considered Cambridge changes. Cambridge changes is a broader definition that includes both substantive changes and what are called merely Cambridge changes. If an object undergoes a substantive change, such as a change in color from red to blue, that would be considered a Cambridge change as well. Since the predicates that apply to the object changed, prior to changing, the predicate red applied, and after it no longer applies, and the predicate blue applies instead. So, this is a Cambridge change because the predicates that we can apply, the set of predicates that applied to the object, were different before and after the change. Before, the predicate red applied, the predicate blue did not, and vice versa after. So, most substantive changes are going to be considered Cambridge changes as well. However, there are also merely Cambridge changes, such as changes in the relationship between an object and the world. For example, the predicate is a grandparent may not apply to someone one day, but might apply to them the next day, and so it can be a change. You can become

a grandparent, but that can happen without any substantive changes to the individual. You, in fact, might not even be aware of becoming a grandparent. The predicate the largest of the bunch might apply to a balloon sitting in the bunch of balloons that someone's uh selling on a street corner at one moment, but not apply later if, say, another larger balloon was inflated and added to the bunch. The predicate is the president of the country does not confer an inherent change on an individual. The individual does not themselves change by simply becoming president. All of these are often referred to as merely Cambridge changes, since nothing inherent about the object changed, but the set of predicates that applied to them did. There's a question as to whether merely Cambridge changes are actually changes, as if so, there seem to be a lot of changes that every individual undergoes every moment of their lives. You can think of the amount of things that are moving around you in your relationships to them. You changed in relationship to being to the north of someone, but now you're to the

west of them, there are many many objects in the universe moving around the Sun. You are changing in your relationship to them constantly, and so you are undergoing many many many Cambridge changes at any given moment. This means that if we accept Cambridge changes in some way real changes, everything is constantly changing in millions, if not trillions, of ways related to all of your relationships to all of the other atoms in the universe. Now, there's a debate also as to whether some changes are substantive or merely Cambridge changes. Many changes that can seem to be merely Cambridge changes have other impacts. Becoming the president of the country may not make clear changes to you as an individual, but it likely will change your beliefs, your emotions, etc., which in some way are a part of you and therefore are a substantive change. So, is there some important way in which they do really change someone really changes by becoming the president because their beliefs, their feelings, perhaps change. Is gaining a belief really a change? It seems that we think that

gaining knowledge of how to do something seems to be a substantive change. We think that education makes a real change in people, not just a Cambridge change. So why wouldn't gaining a belief, such as the belief that you're a grandparent, make such a change as well? If so, then when you become a grandparent, you may undergo merely a Cambridge change, but when you form the belief that you are a grandparent, you might undergo a more substantive change. Now, the subject of change. We are announcing today a change to our upload schedule here on the channel. Following the strong success of our video on what is genocide, check that video out if you haven't already. We're going to shift towards doing some more long-form videos in that style. We will still be making short-form videos like this, but they're going to be less frequent to allow us to put some more effort into the big ones. Our plan right now is to shift from a weekly schedule to a twice-a-month schedule with six or so big videos each.

year, we're going to try this out for the next couple of months and see how things go. We'll continue our ongoing series that exist, such as our series on piano arithmetic, but they may come out with less frequency. We hope that this new schedule will let us bring you some longer form, more in-depth content without losing our commitment to summarizing complex concepts in clear, short videos, just like this one. Let me know in your thoughts in the comments below on that change, as well as your thoughts on a Cambridge change. What do you think should things that change only your beliefs about yourself count as merely a Cambridge change, or are they more substantive than we might realize? Are there properties that can be changed that don't fully fit into either substantive or merely Cambridge changes? Leave your thoughts in the comments below. Watch this video and more here at cares.org and stay skeptical, everybody.

What is a Cambridge Change?

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