Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Improvement of Understanding', 'Syntactic Structure' and 'Two Notions of Being: Entity and Essence'

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10 ideas

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems

13917

Metaphysics aims to identify categories of being, and show their interdependency [Lowe]

1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 6. Metaphysics as Conceptual

13919

Philosophy aims not at the 'analysis of concepts', but at understanding the essences of things [Lowe]

2. Reason / D. Definition / 2. Aims of Definition

16541

All the intrinsic properties of a thing should be deducible from its definition [Spinoza]

2. Reason / F. Fallacies / 8. Category Mistake / c. Category mistake as semantic

18009

Chomsky established the view that category mistakes are well-formed but meaningless [Chomsky, by Magidor]

9. Objects / B. Unity of Objects / 3. Unity Problems / d. Coincident objects

13918

Holes, shadows and spots of light can coincide without being identical [Lowe]

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 8. Essence as Explanatory

13921

All things must have an essence (a 'what it is'), or we would be unable to think about them [Lowe]

9. Objects / D. Essence of Objects / 14. Knowledge of Essences

13922

Knowing an essence is just knowing what the thing is, not knowing some further thing [Lowe]

9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 4. Type Identity

13920

Each thing has to be of a general kind, because it belongs to some category [Lowe]

14. Science / D. Explanation / 2. Types of Explanation / k. Explanations by essence

13073

To understand the properties we must know the essence, as with a circle [Spinoza]

19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 1. Syntax

18007

Syntax is independent of semantics; sentences can be well formed but meaningless [Chomsky, by Magidor]