back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 5468

[from 'The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism' by Brian Ellis, in 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 3. Types of Properties ]

Full Idea

'Dispositional' properties involve behaviour, and 'categorical properties' are structures in two or more dimensions. 'Block' structures (e.g. molecules) depend on other things, and 'instrinsic' structures (e.g. fields) involve no separate parts.

Gist of Idea

Properties are 'dispositional', or 'categorical' (the latter as 'block' or 'intrinsic' structures)

Source

report of Brian Ellis (The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism [2002], Ch.4) by PG - Db (ideas)

Book Reference

Ellis,Brian: 'The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism' [Acumen 2002], p.68


A Reaction

This is an essentialist approach to properties, and sounds correct to me. The crucial preliminary step to understanding properties is to eliminate secondary qualities (e.g. colour), which are not properties at all, and cause confusion.