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Full Idea
Objects possess properties, but I am sceptical of the idea that properties possess properties; just as a property is a way some object is, a property of a property would be a way a property is, but that is just the property itself.
Gist of Idea
Properties don't possess ways they are, because that just is the property
Source
John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], 12.1)
Book Ref
Heil,John: 'From an Ontological Point of View' [OUP 2005], p.126
A Reaction
This is quite a good defence of the idea that properties are qualities as well as dispositions. However, if we make the qualities of properties into secondary qualities, and the dispositions into primary qualities, the absurdity melts away.
| 1532 | Sensible qualities can't be real if they appear different to different creatures [Democritus, by Theophrastus] |
| 12478 | A 'quality' is a power to produce an idea in our minds [Locke] |
| 6991 | We examine objects to determine colour; we do not introspect [Jackson] |
| 15509 | Some say qualities are parts of things - as repeatable universals, or as particulars [Lewis] |
| 7028 | If properties were qualities without dispositions, they would be undetectable [Heil] |
| 7029 | Can we distinguish the way a property is from the property? [Heil] |
| 7030 | Properties don't possess ways they are, because that just is the property [Heil] |
| 8276 | Properties or qualities are essentially adjectival, not objectual [Lowe] |