more from Willard Quine

Single Idea 16945

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 6. Dispositions / d. Dispositions as occurrent]

Full Idea

Intuitively, what qualifies a thing as soluble though it never gets into water is that it is of the same kind as the things that actually did or will dissolve; it is similar to them.

Gist of Idea

We judge things to be soluble if they are the same kind as, or similar to, things that do dissolve

Source

Willard Quine (Natural Kinds [1969], p.130)

Book Reference

Quine,Willard: 'Ontological Relativity and Other Essays' [Columbia 1969], p.130


A Reaction

If you can judge that the similar things 'will' dissolve, you can cut to the chase and judge that this thing will dissolve.