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Full Idea
On the 'pictorial' conception, a structural universal is isomorphic to its instances. ...It is an individual, a mereological composite, not a set. ...It is composed of simpler universals which are literally parts of it.
Gist of Idea
The 'pictorial' view of structural universals says they are wholes made of universals as parts
Source
David Lewis (Against Structural Universals [1986], 'The pictorial')
Book Ref
Lewis,David: 'Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology' [CUP 1999], p.90
A Reaction
I'm not clear why Lewis labels this the 'pictorial' view. His other two views of structural universals are 'linguistic' and 'magical'. The linguistic is obviously wrong, and the magical doesn't sound promising. Must I vote for pictorial?
Related Idea
Idea 15441 The structural universal 'methane' needs the universal 'hydrogen' four times over [Lewis]
| 15465 | Structures don't explain dispositions, because they consist of dispositions [Martin,CB] |
| 15476 | Structural properties involve dispositionality, so cannot be used to explain it [Martin,CB] |
| 12685 | Categorical properties depend only on the structures they represent [Ellis] |
| 15800 | All events and objects are dispositional, and hence all structural properties are dispositional [Fetzer] |
| 15452 | We could not uphold a truthmaker for 'Fa' without structures [Lewis] |
| 15448 | The 'magical' view of structural universals says they are atoms, even though they have parts [Lewis] |
| 15449 | If 'methane' is an atomic structural universal, it has nothing to connect it to its carbon universals [Lewis] |
| 15439 | The 'pictorial' view of structural universals says they are wholes made of universals as parts [Lewis] |
| 15441 | The structural universal 'methane' needs the universal 'hydrogen' four times over [Lewis] |
| 15445 | Butane and Isobutane have the same atoms, but different structures [Lewis] |
| 15434 | Structural universals have a necessary connection to the universals forming its parts [Lewis] |
| 15437 | We can't get rid of structural universals if there are no simple universals [Lewis] |
| 11917 | Structural properties are derivate properties [Molnar] |
| 11955 | There are no 'structural properties', as properties with parts [Molnar] |
| 14535 | Pandispositionalists say structures are clusters of causal powers [Mumford/Anjum] |