Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Two Notions of Being: Entity and Essence', 'Modal Realism at Work: Properties' and 'Resurrecting Biological Essentialism'

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11 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]

8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 11. Properties as Sets

4038	Properties are sets of their possible instances (which separates 'renate' from 'cordate') [Lewis, by Mellor/Oliver]

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 / 10. Essence as Species

17368

Essentialism concerns the nature of a group, not its category [Devitt]

17370

Things that gradually change, like species, can still have essences [Devitt]

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]

27. Natural Reality / G. Biology / 5. Species

17369

We name species as small to share properties, but large enough to yield generalisations [Devitt]

17367

Species are phenetic, biological, niche, or phylogenetic-cladistic [Devitt, by PG]