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Full Idea
The task of ontology is to spell out the fundamental categories of being.
Gist of Idea
Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being
Source
John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 02.5)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'The Universe as We Find It' [OUP 2012], p.25
A Reaction
This is the aspiration of 'pure' metaphysics, which I don't quite believe in. There is too much convention involved, on the one hand, and physics on the other.
| 16116 | Aristotle derived categories as answers to basic questions about nature, size, quality, location etc. [Aristotle, by Gill,ML] |
| 16655 | Different genera are delimited by modes of predication, which rest on modes of being [Aquinas] |
| 12989 | Our true divisions of nature match reality, but are probably incomplete [Leibniz] |
| 21754 | Our concepts and categories disclose the world, because we are part of the world [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
| 21755 | For Hegel, categories shift their form in the course of history [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
| 16462 | The quest for ultimate categories is the quest for a simple clear pattern of notation [Quine] |
| 16185 | Causality indicates which properties are real [Cartwright,N] |
| 18512 | Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being [Heil] |
| 13739 | Maybe categories are just the different ways that things depend on basic substances [Schaffer,J] |
| 17728 | The concepts we have to use for categorising are ones which map the real world well [Jenkins] |
| 18921 | Individuals are arranged in inclusion categories that match our semantics [Engelbretsen] |