Single Idea 7030

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / B. Perception / 2. Qualities in Perception / a. Qualities in perception]

Full Idea

Objects possess properties, but I am sceptical of the idea that properties possess properties; just as a property is a way some object is, a property of a property would be a way a property is, but that is just the property itself.

Gist of Idea

Properties don't possess ways they are, because that just is the property

Source

John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], 12.1)

Book Reference

Heil,John: 'From an Ontological Point of View' [OUP 2005], p.126


A Reaction

This is quite a good defence of the idea that properties are qualities as well as dispositions. However, if we make the qualities of properties into secondary qualities, and the dispositions into primary qualities, the absurdity melts away.