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Single Idea 7007

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 9. Qualities ]

Full Idea

Some philosophers who accept that properties are intrinsic features of objects regard them as pure powers, pure dispositionalities; I prefer to think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative.

Gist of Idea

I think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative

Source

John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], Intro)

Book Ref

Heil,John: 'From an Ontological Point of View' [OUP 2005], p.11

A Reaction

I am uneasy about 'qualitative' as a category, and am inclined to reduce it to being a dispositional power to cause primary and secondary qualities in observers. Roughness is only a power, not a quality, if there are no observers.

The 4 ideas with the same theme [perceived aspects of properties]:

16739 Four species of quality: states, capacities, affects, and forms [Aristotle, by Pasnau]
16705 Whiteness isn't created in an alteration, because it is just this-being-white [Oresme]
15484 A property is a combination of a disposition and a quality [Martin,CB]
7007 I think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative [Heil]