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Single Idea 16947

[filed under theme 15. Nature of Minds / C. Capacities of Minds / 7. Seeing Resemblance ]

Full Idea

Things are similar to the extent that they are interchangeable parts of the cosmic machine.

Gist of Idea

Similarity is just interchangeability in the cosmic machine

Source

Willard Quine (Natural Kinds [1969], p.134)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.134

A Reaction

This is a major idea for Quine, because it is a means to gradually eliminate the fuzzy ideas of 'resemblance' or 'similarity' or 'natural kind' from science. I love it! Two tigers are same insofar as they are substitutable.

Related Idea

Idea 16948 Once we know the mechanism of a disposition, we can eliminate 'similarity' [Quine]

The 19 ideas from 'Natural Kinds'

7375 Quine probably regrets natural kinds now being treated as essences [Quine, by Dennett]
16932 Projectible predicates can be universalised about the kind to which they refer [Quine]
16933 Grue is a puzzle because the notions of similarity and kind are dubious in science [Quine]
16934 General terms depend on similarities among things [Quine]
16935 If similarity has no degrees, kinds cannot be contained within one another [Quine]
16936 Comparative similarity allows the kind 'colored' to contain the kind 'red' [Quine]
16937 You can't base kinds just on resemblance, because chains of resemblance are a muddle [Quine]
16938 To learn yellow by observation, must we be told to look at the colour? [Quine]
8486 Standards of similarity are innate, and the spacing of qualities such as colours can be mapped [Quine]
16939 Mass terms just concern spread, but other terms involve both spread and individuation [Quine]
16941 Induction relies on similar effects following from each cause [Quine]
16940 Induction is just more of the same: animal expectations [Quine]
16943 Philosophy is continuous with science, and has no external vantage point [Quine]
16942 It is hard to see how regularities could be explained [Quine]
16944 Science is common sense, with a sophisticated method [Quine]
16945 We judge things to be soluble if they are the same kind as, or similar to, things that do dissolve [Quine]
16947 Similarity is just interchangeability in the cosmic machine [Quine]
16948 Once we know the mechanism of a disposition, we can eliminate 'similarity' [Quine]
16949 Klein summarised geometry as grouped together by transformations [Quine]