Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Extrinsic Properties', 'Relations' and 'Friendship'

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11 ideas

8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 1. Nature of Relations
We want the ontology of relations, not just a formal way of specifying them [Heil]
     Full Idea: A satisfying account of relations must be ontologically serious. This means refusing to rest content with abstract specifications of relations as sets of ordered n-tuples.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], Intro)
     A reaction: A set of ordered entities would give the extension of a relation, which wouldn't, among other things, explain co-extensive relations (if all the people to my left were also taller than me). Heil's is a general cry from the heart about formal philosophy.
Two people are indirectly related by height; the direct relation is internal, between properties [Heil]
     Full Idea: If Simmias is taller than Socrates, they are indirectly related; they are related via their possession of properties that are themselves directly - and internally - related. Hence relational truths are made true by non-relational features of the world.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], 'Founding')
     A reaction: This seems to be a strategy for reducing external relations to internal relations, which are intrinsic to objects, which thus reduces the ontology. Heil is not endorsing it, but cites Kit Fine 2000. The germ of this idea is in Plato.
Maybe all the other features of the world can be reduced to relations [Heil]
     Full Idea: A striking idea is that relations are ontologically primary: monadic, non-relational features of the world are constituted by relations. A view of this kind is defended by Peirce, and contemporary 'structural realists' like Ladyman.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], 'Relational')
     A reaction: I can't make sense of this proposal, which seems to offer relations with no relata. What is a relation? What is it made of? How do you individuate two instances of a relations, without reference to the relata?
8. Modes of Existence / A. Relations / 2. Internal Relations
In the case of 5 and 6, their relational truthmaker is just the numbers [Heil]
     Full Idea: We might say that the truthmakers for 'six is greater than five' are six and five themselves. On this view, truthmakers for one class of relational truths are non-relational features of the world.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], 'Founding')
     A reaction: That seems to be a good way of expressing the existence of an internal relation.
Truthmaking is a clear example of an internal relation [Heil]
     Full Idea: Truthmaking is a paradigmatic internal relation: if you have a truthbearer, a representation, and you have the world as the truthbearer represents it as being, you have truthmaking, you have the truthbearer's being true.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], 'Causal')
     A reaction: It is nice to have an example of an internal relation other than numbers, and closer to the concrete world. Is the relation between the world and facts about the world the same thing, or another example?
If R internally relates a and b, and you have a and b, you thereby have R [Heil]
     Full Idea: A simple way to think about internal relations is: if R internally relates a and b, then, if you have a and b, you thereby have R. If you have six and you have five, you thereby have six's being greater than five.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], 'External')
     A reaction: This seems to work a lot better for abstracta than for physical objects, where I am struggling to think of a parallel example. Parenthood? Temporal relations between things? Acorn and oak?
8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 4. Intrinsic Properties
Being alone doesn't guarantee intrinsic properties; 'being alone' is itself extrinsic [Lewis, by Sider]
     Full Idea: The property of 'being alone in the world' is an extrinsic property, even though it has had by an object that is alone in the world.
     From: report of David Lewis (Extrinsic Properties [1983]) by Theodore Sider - Writing the Book of the World 01.2
     A reaction: I always choke on my cornflakes whenever anyone cites a true predicate as if it were a genuine property. This is a counterexample to Idea 14978. Sider offers another more elaborate example from Lewis.
Extrinsic properties come in degrees, with 'brother' less extrinsic than 'sibling' [Lewis]
     Full Idea: Properties may be more or less intrinsic; being a brother has more of an admixture of intrinsic structure than being a sibling does, yet both are extrinsic.
     From: David Lewis (Extrinsic Properties [1983], I)
     A reaction: I suppose the point is that a brother is intrinsically male - but then a sibling is intrinsically human. A totally extrinsic relation would be one between entities which shared virtually no categories of existence.
8. Modes of Existence / C. Powers and Dispositions / 4. Powers as Essence
If properties are powers, then causal relations are internal relations [Heil]
     Full Idea: On the conception that properties are powers, it is no longer obvious that causal relations are external relations. Given the powers - all the powers in play - you have the manifestations.
     From: John Heil (Relations [2009], 'Causal')
     A reaction: This also delivers on a plate the necessity felt to be in causal relations, because the relation is inevitable once you are given the relata. But can you have an accidental (rather than essential) internal relation? Not in the case of numbers.
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / b. Individuation by properties
Total intrinsic properties give us what a thing is [Lewis]
     Full Idea: The way something is is given by the totality of its intrinsic properties.
     From: David Lewis (Extrinsic Properties [1983], I)
     A reaction: No. Some properties are intrinsic but trivial. The 'important' ones fix the identity (if the identity is indeed 'fixed').
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / d. Friendship
Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone [Weil]
     Full Idea: Friendship has something universal about it. It consists in loving a human being as we should like to be able to love each soul in particular of all those who go to make up the human race.
     From: Simone Weil (Friendship [1940], p.288)
     A reaction: Hm. Would you like your lover to dream of loving the human race, rather than just loving you? Perhaps only a Christian could see friendship in this way?