Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Lynch,MP/Glasgow,JM, Charles Sanders Peirce and Aristotle

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4 ideas

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates
Predicates are substance, quality, place, relation, quantity and action or affection [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: The categories of predication are substance, quality, place, relation, quantity and action or affection.
     From: Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 225b06)
     A reaction: A note says this omits time from the 'familiar list' of eight predicates.
Only what can be said of many things is a predicable [Aristotle, by Wedin]
     Full Idea: Aristotle reminds us that nothing is to count as predicable that cannot be said-of many things.
     From: report of Aristotle (Categories [c.331 BCE]) by Michael V. Wedin - Aristotle's Theory of Substance III.1
     A reaction: Thus there wouldn't be any predicates if there were not universals. Could we have proper names for individual qualities (tropes), in the way that we have them for individual objects?
Some predicates signify qualification of a substance, others the substance itself [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: 'White' signifies nothing but a qualification, whereas the species ('man') and the genus ('animal') mark off the qualification of substance - they signify substance of a certain qualification.
     From: Aristotle (Categories [c.331 BCE], 03b18)
     A reaction: This is making a fundamental distinction between two different types of predication. I would describe them as one attributing a real property, and the other attributing a category (as a result of the properties). I don't think 'substance' helps here.
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 9. Indexical Semantics
Indexicals are unusual words, because they stimulate the hearer to look around [Peirce]
     Full Idea: Words like 'this', 'that', 'I', 'you', enable us to convey meanings which words alone are incompetent to express; they stimulate the hearer to look about him.
     From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], II)
     A reaction: Peirce was once of the first to notice the interest of indexicals, and this is a very nice comment on them. A word like 'Look!' isn't like the normal flow of verbiage, and may be the key to indexicals.