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Full Idea
Scientific essentialism requires that philosophers distinguish clearly between semantic issues, epistemological issues, and ontological issues.
Clarification
'Semantics' is meanings, and 'ontology' is what actually exists
Gist of Idea
Essentialism requires a clear separation of semantics, epistemology and ontology
Source
Brian Ellis (The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism [2002], Ch.7)
Book Ref
Ellis,Brian: 'The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism' [Acumen 2002], p.138
A Reaction
Music to my ears - but then I think everyone should require that of philosophers, because it where they get themselves most confused. The trouble is that ontology is only obtainable epistemologically, and only expressible semantically.
| 9787 | Scientists must know the essential attributes of the things they study [Aristotle] |
| 16745 | No one even knows the nature and properties of a fly - why it has that colour, or so many feet [Bacon,R] |
| 7713 | We identify substances by supposing that groups of sensations arise from an essence [Locke] |
| 12545 | Other spirits may exceed us in knowledge, by knowing the inward constitution of things [Locke] |
| 17968 | By digging deeper into the axioms we approach the essence of sciences, and unity of knowedge [Hilbert] |
| 12310 | Real essences are scientifically knowable, but so are non-essential properties [Copi] |
| 6612 | Without general principles, we couldn't predict the behaviour of dispositional properties [Ellis] |
| 5487 | Essentialism requires a clear separation of semantics, epistemology and ontology [Ellis] |
| 8553 | It looks as if the immutability of the powers of a property imply essentiality [Shoemaker] |
| 4965 | Science searches basic structures in search of essences [Kripke] |
| 21219 | Find the essence by varying an object, to see what remains invariable [Velarde-Mayol] |
| 14307 | Some dispositions are so far unknown, until we learn how to manifest them [Mumford] |
| 9437 | To distinguish accidental from essential properties, we must include possible members of kinds [Mumford] |
| 15704 | Essentialism starts from richly structured categories, leading to a search for underlying properties [Gelman] |
| 6789 | If flame colour is characteristic of a metal, that is an empirical claim needing justification [Bird] |