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Single Idea 16934
[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 7. Seeing Resemblance
]
Full Idea
The usual general term, whether a common noun or a verb or an adjective, owes its generality to some resemblance among the things referred to.
Gist of Idea
General terms depend on similarities among things
Source
Willard Quine (Natural Kinds [1969], p.116)
Book Ref
Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.116
A Reaction
Quine has a nice analysis of the basic role of similarity in a huge amount of supposedly strict scientific thought.
The
19 ideas
from 'Natural Kinds'
7375
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Quine probably regrets natural kinds now being treated as essences
[Quine, by Dennett]
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16932
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Projectible predicates can be universalised about the kind to which they refer
[Quine]
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16933
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Grue is a puzzle because the notions of similarity and kind are dubious in science
[Quine]
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16934
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General terms depend on similarities among things
[Quine]
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16935
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If similarity has no degrees, kinds cannot be contained within one another
[Quine]
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16936
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Comparative similarity allows the kind 'colored' to contain the kind 'red'
[Quine]
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16937
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You can't base kinds just on resemblance, because chains of resemblance are a muddle
[Quine]
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16938
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To learn yellow by observation, must we be told to look at the colour?
[Quine]
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8486
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Standards of similarity are innate, and the spacing of qualities such as colours can be mapped
[Quine]
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16939
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Mass terms just concern spread, but other terms involve both spread and individuation
[Quine]
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16941
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Induction relies on similar effects following from each cause
[Quine]
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16940
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Induction is just more of the same: animal expectations
[Quine]
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16943
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Philosophy is continuous with science, and has no external vantage point
[Quine]
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16942
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It is hard to see how regularities could be explained
[Quine]
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16944
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Science is common sense, with a sophisticated method
[Quine]
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16945
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We judge things to be soluble if they are the same kind as, or similar to, things that do dissolve
[Quine]
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16947
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Similarity is just interchangeability in the cosmic machine
[Quine]
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16948
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Once we know the mechanism of a disposition, we can eliminate 'similarity'
[Quine]
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16949
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Klein summarised geometry as grouped together by transformations
[Quine]
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