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Single Idea 13118
[filed under theme 7. Existence / E. Categories / 1. Categories
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Full Idea
My fundamental idea is that 'form-sets' are intersubstitutable constituents of states of affairs with the same form, and 'base-sets' are special form-sets which can be used to construct other form-sets. Ontological categories are the base-sets.
Gist of Idea
Categories are base-sets which are used to construct states of affairs
Source
Jan Westerhoff (Ontological Categories [2005], Intro)
Book Ref
Westerhoff,Jan: 'Ontological Categories' [OUP 2005], p.7
A Reaction
The spirit of this is, of course, to try to achieve the kind of rigour that is expected in contemporary professional philosophy, by aiming for some sort of axiom-system that is related to a well established precise discipline like set theory. Maybe.
The
14 ideas
from Jan Westerhoff
13117
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How far down before we are too specialised to have a category?
[Westerhoff]
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13116
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Maybe objects in the same category have the same criteria of identity
[Westerhoff]
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13118
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Categories are base-sets which are used to construct states of affairs
[Westerhoff]
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13115
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Ontological categories are like formal axioms, not unique and with necessary membership
[Westerhoff]
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13119
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Categories merely systematise, and are not intrinsic to objects
[Westerhoff]
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13124
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Categories can be ordered by both containment and generality
[Westerhoff]
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13123
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All systems have properties and relations, and most have individuals, abstracta, sets and events
[Westerhoff]
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13125
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Categories are held to explain why some substitutions give falsehood, and others meaninglessness
[Westerhoff]
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13126
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Categories systematize our intuitions about generality, substitutability, and identity
[Westerhoff]
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13130
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Categories as generalities don't give a criterion for a low-level cut-off point
[Westerhoff]
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13129
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Essential kinds may be too specific to provide ontological categories
[Westerhoff]
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13131
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The aim is that everything should belong in some ontological category or other
[Westerhoff]
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13134
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We negate predicates but do not negate names
[Westerhoff]
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13135
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A thing's ontological category depends on what else exists, so it is contingent
[Westerhoff]
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