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Single Idea 16655

[filed under theme 7. Existence / E. Categories / 4. Category Realism ]

Full Idea

Being is delimited into different genera in accord with different modes of predicating, which depend on different modes of being.

Gist of Idea

Different genera are delimited by modes of predication, which rest on modes of being

Source

Thomas Aquinas (On Aristotle's 'Metaphysics' [1266], V.9.890), quoted by Robert Pasnau - Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671 12.3

Book Ref

Pasnau,Robert: 'Metaphysical Themes 1274-1671' [OUP 2011], p.230


A Reaction

I like this. When people say that predication is the way we divide things up, and go all linguistic-relativist about things, they forget how closely language not only describes reality, but arises out of, or is even caused by, reality. 'Grue' is silly.


The 11 ideas with the same theme [belief that our categories can or do map reality]:

Aristotle derived categories as answers to basic questions about nature, size, quality, location etc. [Aristotle, by Gill,ML]
Different genera are delimited by modes of predication, which rest on modes of being [Aquinas]
Our true divisions of nature match reality, but are probably incomplete [Leibniz]
Our concepts and categories disclose the world, because we are part of the world [Hegel, by Houlgate]
For Hegel, categories shift their form in the course of history [Hegel, by Houlgate]
The quest for ultimate categories is the quest for a simple clear pattern of notation [Quine]
Causality indicates which properties are real [Cartwright,N]
Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being [Heil]
Maybe categories are just the different ways that things depend on basic substances [Schaffer,J]
The concepts we have to use for categorising are ones which map the real world well [Jenkins]
Individuals are arranged in inclusion categories that match our semantics [Engelbretsen]