Combining Texts

Ideas for 'Folk Psychology', 'Physics' and 'Natural Kinds'

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2 ideas

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates
Predicates are substance, quality, place, relation, quantity and action or affection [Aristotle]
     Full Idea: The categories of predication are substance, quality, place, relation, quantity and action or affection.
     From: Aristotle (Physics [c.337 BCE], 225b06)
     A reaction: A note says this omits time from the 'familiar list' of eight predicates.
Projectible predicates can be universalised about the kind to which they refer [Quine]
     Full Idea: 'Projectible' predicates are predicates F and G whose shared instances all do count, for whatever reason, towards confirmation of 'All F are G'. ….A projectible predicate is one that is true of all and only the things of a kind.
     From: Willard Quine (Natural Kinds [1969], p.115-6)
     A reaction: Both Quine and Goodman are infuriatingly brief about the introduction of this concept. 'Red' is true of all ripe tomatoes, but not 'only' of them. Hardly any predicates are true only of one kind. Is that a scholastic 'proprium'?