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Single Idea 12055
[filed under theme 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / e. Individuation by kind
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Full Idea
Predications which answer the question 'what is x?' are often called 'sortal predications' in present-day philosophy.
Gist of Idea
Sortal predications are answers to the question 'what is x?'
Source
David Wiggins (Substance [1995], 4.10.1)
Book Ref
'Philosophy: a Guide Through the Subject', ed/tr. Grayling,A.C. [OUP 1995], p.230
A Reaction
The word 'sortal' comes from Locke. Wiggins is the guru of 'sortal essentialism'. I just can't believe that in answer to the question 'what really is David Wiggins?' that he would be happy with a sequence of categorisations.
The
14 ideas
from 'Substance'
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12057
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Matter underlies things, composes things, and brings them to be
[Wiggins]
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12047
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We refer to persisting substances, in perception and in thought, and they aid understanding
[Wiggins]
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12056
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An ancestral relation is either direct or transitively indirect
[Wiggins]
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12055
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Sortal predications are answers to the question 'what is x?'
[Wiggins]
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12059
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A river may change constantly, but not in respect of being a river
[Wiggins]
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12063
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Sortal classification becomes science, with cross reference clarifying individuals
[Wiggins]
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12064
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The category of substance is more important for epistemology than for ontology
[Wiggins]
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12065
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Seeing a group of soldiers as an army is irresistible, in ontology and explanation
[Wiggins]
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12049
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Naming the secondary substance provides a mass of general information
[Wiggins]
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12050
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Substances contain a source of change or principle of activity
[Wiggins]
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12052
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We never single out just 'this', but always 'this something-or-other'
[Wiggins]
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12051
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If the kinds are divided realistically, they fall into substances
[Wiggins]
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12053
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'Human being' is a better answer to 'what is it?' than 'poet', as the latter comes in degrees
[Wiggins]
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12054
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Secondary substances correctly divide primary substances by activity-principles and relations
[Wiggins]
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