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Single Idea 13094

[filed under theme 9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / d. Individuation by haecceity ]

Full Idea

For Scotus, the haecceity of an individual was a positive non-quidditative entity which, together with a common nature from which it was formally distinct, played the role of the ultimate differentia, thus individuating the substance.

Clarification

A 'quiddity' is a thing with qualities

Gist of Idea

The haecceity is the featureless thing which gives ultimate individuality to a substance

Source

report of John Duns Scotus (Ordinatio [1302]) by Cover,J/O'Leary-Hawthorne,J - Substance and Individuation in Leibniz 6.1.3

Book Ref

Cover,J/O'Leary-Hawthorne,J: 'Substance and Individuation in Leibniz' [CUP 1999], p.222

A Reaction

Most thinkers seem to agree (with me) that this is a non-starter, an implausible postulate designed to fill a gap in a metaphysic that hasn't been properly worked out. Leibniz is the hero who faces the problem and works around it.

The 21 ideas with the same theme [a special property marking a thing's uniqueness]:

13787 Doesn't each thing have an essence, just as it has other qualities? [Plato]
16160 For Aristotle, things are not made individual by some essential distinguishing mark [Aristotle, by Frede,M]
14665 We can call the quality of Plato 'Platonity', and say it is a quality which only he possesses [Boethius]
13094 The haecceity is the featureless thing which gives ultimate individuality to a substance [Duns Scotus, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
22127 Scotus said a substantial principle of individuation [haecceitas] was needed for an essence [Duns Scotus, by Dumont]
13075 No two things are quite the same, so there must be an internal principle of distinction [Leibniz]
13105 The laws-of-the-series plays a haecceitist role [Leibniz, by Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
15807 A haecceity is a property had necessarily, and strictly confined to one entity [Chisholm]
15805 Being the tallest man is an 'individual concept', but not a haecceity [Chisholm]
13132 A snowball's haecceity is the property of being identical with itself [Plantinga, by Westerhoff]
14647 Surely self-identity is essential to Socrates? [Plantinga]
14658 'Being Socrates' and 'being identical with Socrates' characterise Socrates, so they are among his properties [Plantinga]
16463 Adams says actual things have haecceities, but not things that only might exist [Adams,RM, by Stalnaker]
14508 A 'thisness' is a thing's property of being identical with itself (not the possession of self-identity) [Adams,RM]
14511 There are cases where mere qualities would not ensure an intrinsic identity [Adams,RM]
11866 The idea of 'thisness' is better expressed with designation/predication and particular/universal [Wiggins]
11117 Haecceities implausibly have no qualities [Jubien]
13393 Any entity has the unique property of being that specific entity [Jubien]
13104 Haecceity as property, or as colourless thisness, or as singleton set [Cover/O'Leary-Hawthorne]
10995 A haecceity is a set of individual properties, essential to each thing [Read]
11883 A haecceity is the essential, simple, unanalysable property of being-this-thing [Mackie,P]