more on this theme     |     more from this text


Single Idea 10934

[filed under theme 9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 7. Essence and Necessity / b. Essence not necessities ]

Full Idea

It is easy to confuse the notion of an essential property that a thing could not lack, with a property it could not lose. My having spent Christmas 2007 in Tennessee is a non-essential property I could not lose.

Gist of Idea

Unlosable properties are not the same as essential properties

Source

Adolph Rami (Essential vs Accidental Properties [2008], §1)

Book Ref

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.5


A Reaction

The idea that having spent Christmas in Tennessee is a property I find quite bewildering. Is my not having spent my Christmas in Tennessee one of my properties? I suspect that real unlosable properties are essential ones.


The 21 ideas from Adolph Rami

The extremes of essentialism are that all properties are essential, or only very trivial ones [Rami]
Unlosable properties are not the same as essential properties [Rami]
Physical possibility is part of metaphysical possibility which is part of logical possibility [Rami]
If it is possible 'for all I know' then it is 'epistemically possible' [Rami]
'Sortal essentialism' says being a particular kind is what is essential [Rami]
An 'individual essence' is possessed uniquely by a particular object [Rami]
Central idea: truths need truthmakers; and possibly all truths have them, and makers entail truths [Rami]
There are five problems which the truth-maker theory might solve [Rami]
The truth-maker idea is usually justified by its explanatory power, or intuitive appeal [Rami]
The truth-making relation can be one-to-one, or many-to-many [Rami]
It seems best to assume different kinds of truth-maker, such as objects, facts, tropes, or events [Rami]
Internal relations depend either on the existence of the relata, or on their properties [Rami]
Truth-making is usually internalist, but the correspondence theory is externalist [Rami]
Correspondence theories assume that truth is a representation relation [Rami]
Truth-makers seem to be states of affairs (plus optional individuals), or individuals and properties [Rami]
Most theorists say that truth-makers necessitate their truths [Rami]
Maybe a truth-maker also works for the entailments of the given truth [Rami]
'Truth supervenes on being' only gives necessary (not sufficient) conditions for contingent truths [Rami]
'Truth supervenes on being' avoids entities as truth-makers for negative truths [Rami]
Deflationist truth is an infinitely disjunctive property [Rami]
Truth-maker theorists should probably reject the converse Barcan formula [Rami]