more from Sydney Shoemaker

Single Idea 15756

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 10. Properties as Predicates]

Full Idea

Sometimes a predicate is true of a thing, not because (or only because) of any properties it has, but because something else, perhaps something related to it in certain ways, has certain properties.

Gist of Idea

Some truths are not because of a thing's properties, but because of the properties of related things

Source

Sydney Shoemaker (Causality and Properties [1980], §02)

Book Reference

Shoemaker,Sydney: 'Identity, Cause and Mind' [OUP 2003], p.209


A Reaction

I'm on mission to prize predicates and properties apart, and the strategy is to focus on what is true of something, given that this may not ascribe a property to the thing.