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Full Idea
What is wrong with the pictorial conception is that if the structural universal 'methane' is to be an isomorph of the molecules that are its instances, it must have the universal 'hydrogen' as a part not just once, but four times over.
Clarification
Methane is CH4
Gist of Idea
The structural universal 'methane' needs the universal 'hydrogen' four times over
Source
David Lewis (Against Structural Universals [1986], 'The pictorial')
Book Ref
Lewis,David: 'Papers in Metaphysics and Epistemology' [CUP 1999], p.91
A Reaction
The point is that if hydrogen is a universal it must be unique, so there can't be four of them. To me this smacks of the hopeless mess theologians get into, because of bad premisses. Drop universals, and avoid this kind of stuff.
Related Idea
Idea 15439 The 'pictorial' view of structural universals says they are wholes made of universals as parts [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] |