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Single Idea 18524
[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 5. Powers and Properties
]
Full Idea
In my account of properties they are at once qualitative and dispositional: properties are powerful qualities.
Gist of Idea
Properties are both qualitative and dispositional - they are powerful qualities
Source
John Heil (The Universe as We Find It [2012], 05.1)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'The Universe as We Find It' [OUP 2012], p.84
A Reaction
I have never managed to understand what Heil means by 'qualities'. Is he talking about the phenomenal aspects of powers? Does he mean categorical properties. I can't find an ontological space for his things to slot into.
The
43 ideas
from 'The Universe as We Find It'
18495
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The best philosophers I know are the best people I know
[Heil]
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18494
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Using a technical vocabulary actually prevents discussion of the presuppositions
[Heil]
|
18505
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Fundamental ontology aims at the preconditions for any true theory
[Heil]
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18504
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Only particulars exist, and generality is our mode of presentation
[Heil]
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18506
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Questions of explanation should not be confused with metaphyics
[Heil]
|
18507
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Substances bear properties, so must be simple, and not consist of further substances
[Heil]
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18508
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Most philosophers now (absurdly) believe that relations fully exist
[Heil]
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18509
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Not all truths need truthmakers - mathematics and logic seem to be just true
[Heil]
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18511
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Properties have causal roles which sets can't possibly have
[Heil]
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18510
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We need properties to explain how the world works
[Heil]
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18512
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Ontology aims to give the fundamental categories of being
[Heil]
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18513
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Emergent properties will need emergent substances to bear them
[Heil]
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18515
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Spatial parts are just regions, but objects depend on and are made up of substantial parts
[Heil]
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18514
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Many wholes can survive replacement of their parts
[Heil]
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18516
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A 'gunky' universe would literally have no parts at all
[Heil]
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18517
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Dunes depend on sand grains, but line segments depend on the whole line
[Heil]
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18518
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Infinite numbers are qualitatively different - they are not just very large numbers
[Heil]
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18519
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If there were infinite electrons, they could vanish without affecting total mass-energy
[Heil]
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18520
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Electrons are treated as particles, but they lose their individuality in relations
[Heil]
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18522
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Categorical properties were introduced by philosophers as actual properties, not if-then properties
[Heil]
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18523
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Are all properties powers, or are there also qualities, or do qualities have the powers?
[Heil]
|
18524
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Properties are both qualitative and dispositional - they are powerful qualities
[Heil]
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18525
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Mental abstraction does not make what is abstracted mind-dependent
[Heil]
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18526
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We should focus on actual causings, rather than on laws and causal sequences
[Heil]
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18527
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Probabilistic causation is not a weak type of cause; it is just a probability of there being a cause
[Heil]
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18531
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Philosophers of the past took the truthmaking idea for granted
[Heil]
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18532
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If causal relations are power manifestations, that makes them internal relations
[Heil]
|
18533
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In Fa, F may not be a property of a, but a determinable, satisfied by some determinate
[Heil]
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18534
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Truth relates truthbearers to truthmakers
[Heil]
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18496
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If possible worlds are just fictions, they can't be truthmakers for modal judgements
[Heil]
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18498
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Abstract objects wouldn't be very popular without the implicit idea of truthmakers
[Heil]
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18497
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Many reject 'moral realism' because they can't see any truthmakers for normative judgements
[Heil]
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18500
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How could structures be mathematical truthmakers? Maths is just true, without truthmakers
[Heil]
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18499
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Our quantifications only reveal the truths we accept; the ontology and truthmakers are another matter
[Heil]
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18502
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If basic physics has natures, then why not reality itself? That would then found the deepest necessities
[Heil]
|
18501
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Maybe the universe is fine-tuned because it had to be, despite plans by God or Nature?
[Heil]
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18503
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You can think of tomatoes without grasping what they are
[Heil]
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18535
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Without abstraction we couldn't think systematically
[Heil]
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18536
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The subject-predicate form reflects reality
[Heil]
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18538
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Non-conscious thought may be unlike conscious thought
[Heil]
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18537
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Linguistic thought is just as imagistic as non-linguistic thought
[Heil]
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18540
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Predicates only match properties at the level of fundamentals
[Heil]
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18539
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Our categories lack the neat arrangement needed for reduction
[Heil]
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