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Single Idea 8557

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 5. Natural Properties ]

Full Idea

There is a plausible way of distinguishing genuine and mere-Cambridge properties. To decide whether an emerald is green the thing to do is to examine it, but a mere-Cambridge property is settled by observations at a remote time and place.

Clarification

Mere-Cambridge properties are usually whimsical and relational

Gist of Idea

To ascertain genuine properties, examine the object directly

Source

Sydney Shoemaker (Causality and Properties [1980], §06)

Book Ref

Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.220

A Reaction

Scientific essentialism is beautifully simple! Schoemaker is good at connecting the epistemology to the ontology. If you examined a mirror, you might think it contained reflections.

The 30 ideas with the same theme [properties which constitute the natural world]:

7686 For Aristotle, there are only as many properties as actually exist [Aristotle, by Jacquette]
12673 Physical properties are those relevant to how a physical system might act [Ellis]
13587 There is no property of 'fragility', as things are each fragile in a distinctive way [Ellis]
15728 The naturalness of a class depends as much on the observers as on the objects [Quinton]
9407 Properties imply natural classes which can be picked out by everybody [Quinton]
8543 Genuine properties are closely related to genuine changes [Shoemaker]
8551 Properties must be essentially causal if we can know and speak about them [Shoemaker]
8557 To ascertain genuine properties, examine the object directly [Shoemaker]
15281 Humeans see predicates as independent, but science says they are connected [Harré/Madden]
14996 Natural properties give similarity, joint carving, intrinsicness, specificity, homogeneity... [Lewis]
15744 We can't define natural properties by resemblance, if they are used to explain resemblance [Lewis]
15743 Defining natural properties by means of laws of nature is potentially circular [Lewis]
15740 I don't take 'natural' properties to be fixed by the nature of one possible world [Lewis]
15752 We might try defining the natural properties by a short list of them [Lewis]
16262 Sparse properties rest either on universals, or on tropes, or on primitive naturalness [Lewis, by Maudlin]
15451 I assume there could be natural properties that are not instantiated in our world [Lewis]
10717 Natural properties figure in the analysis of similarity in intrinsic respects [Lewis, by Oliver]
16217 Lewisian natural properties fix reference of predicates, through a principle of charity [Lewis, by Hawley]
8613 Objects are demarcated by density and chemistry, and natural properties belong in what is well demarcated [Lewis]
8585 Reference partly concerns thought and language, partly eligibility of referent by natural properties [Lewis]
8586 Natural properties tend to belong to well-demarcated things, typically loci of causal chains [Lewis]
8589 For us, a property being natural is just an aspect of its featuring in the contents of our attitudes [Lewis]
15460 All perfectly natural properties are intrinsic [Lewis, by Lewis]
15726 Natural properties fix resemblance and powers, and are picked out by universals [Lewis]
11916 'Being physical' is a second-order property [Molnar]
4603 Functionalists in Fodor's camp usually say that a genuine property is one that figures in some causal laws [Heil]
10417 There are only first-order properties ('red'), and none of higher-order ('coloured') [Swoyer]
14933 Scientific properties are defined by the laws that embody them [Psillos, by Ladyman/Ross]
16253 A property is fundamental if two objects can differ in only that respect [Maudlin]
14932 Causal essentialism says properties are nothing but causal relations [Ladyman/Ross]