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Single Idea 8284

[filed under theme 7. Existence / E. Categories / 3. Proposed Categories ]

Full Idea

Some metaphysicians take the highest division to be between abstract and concrete entities, others take it to be between universals and particulars (my own preference, though it is not crucial), and others between necessary and contingent entities.

Gist of Idea

The top division of categories is either abstract/concrete, or universal/particular, or necessary/contingent

Source

E.J. Lowe (The Possibility of Metaphysics [1998], 8.3)

Book Ref

Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.180

A Reaction

The first division may be blurred, and I am doubtful about universals, so I favour the third. Intuition tells me that there is nothing more basic than the distinction between what is true in all worlds and what is only true in some. The former is bedrock.

The 23 ideas with the same theme [actual suggestions for structure of categories]:

3311 The categories (substance, quality, quantity, relation, action, passion, place, time) peter out inconsequentially [Benardete,JA on Aristotle]
13121 Substance,Quantity,Quality,Relation,Place,Time,Being-in-a-position,Having,Doing,Being affected [Aristotle, by Westerhoff]
11035 There are ten basic categories for thinking about things [Aristotle]
12347 The immediate divisions of that which is are genera, each with its science [Aristotle]
12267 There are ten categories: essence, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, activity, passivity [Aristotle]
16652 Stoics categories are Substrate, Quality, Disposition, and Relation [Chrysippus, by Pasnau]
20824 Stoics have four primary categories: substrates, qualities, dispositions, relative dispositions [Stoic school, by Simplicius]
16657 Substance, Quantity and Quality are real; other categories depend on those three [Henry of Ghent]
12993 Have five categories - substance, quantity, quality, action/passion, relation - and their combinations [Leibniz]
7533 The Theory of Description dropped classes and numbers, leaving propositions, individuals and universals [Russell, by Monk]
14163 Four classes of terms: instants, points, terms at instants only, and terms at instants and points [Russell]
13120 Chisholm divides things into contingent and necessary, and then individuals, states and non-states [Chisholm, by Westerhoff]
16526 Animal classifications: the Emperor's, fabulous, innumerable, like flies, stray dogs, embalmed…. [Wiggins]
11929 The three categories in ontology are objects, properties and relations [Molnar]
6529 I see the 'role'/'occupant' distinction as fundamental to metaphysics [Lycan]
7683 Logic is based either on separate objects and properties, or objects as combinations of properties [Jacquette]
7684 Reduce states-of-affairs to object-property combinations, and possible worlds to states-of-affairs [Jacquette]
2401 All facts are either physical, experiential, laws of nature, second-order final facts, or indexical facts about me [Chalmers]
8284 The top division of categories is either abstract/concrete, or universal/particular, or necessary/contingent [Lowe]
13122 Lowe divides things into universals and particulars, then kinds and properties, and abstract/concrete [Lowe, by Westerhoff]
4196 The main categories of existence are either universal and particular, or abstract and concrete [Lowe]
8458 Just individuals in Nominalism; add sets for Extensionalism; add properties, concepts etc for Intensionalism [Orenstein]
13123 All systems have properties and relations, and most have individuals, abstracta, sets and events [Westerhoff]