Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Metaphysics: contemporary introduction', 'works' and 'Introduction - Ontology'

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12 ideas

7. Existence / C. Structure of Existence / 3. Levels of Reality
5500 Biologists see many organic levels, 'abstract' if seen from below, 'structural' if seen from above [Lycan]
8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 13. Tropes / b. Critique of tropes
4483 If abstract terms are sets of tropes, 'being a unicorn' and 'being a griffin' turn out identical [Loux]
8. Modes of Existence / D. Universals / 1. Universals
4481 Austere nominalists insist that the realist's universals lack the requisite independent identifiability [Loux]
4477 Universals come in hierarchies of generality [Loux]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / a. Nominalism
4482 Austere nominalism has to take a host of things (like being red, or human) as primitive [Loux]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / c. Nominalism about abstracta
4478 Nominalism needs to account for abstract singular terms like 'circularity'. [Loux]
9. Objects / A. Existence of Objects / 5. Individuation / c. Individuation by location
4480 Times and places are identified by objects, so cannot be used in a theory of object-identity [Loux]
9. Objects / F. Identity among Objects / 6. Identity between Objects
5494 'Lightning is electric discharge' and 'Phosphorus is Venus' are synthetic a posteriori identities [Lycan]
17. Mind and Body / C. Functionalism / 2. Machine Functionalism
5496 Functionalism has three linked levels: physical, functional, and mental [Lycan]
17. Mind and Body / C. Functionalism / 5. Teleological Functionalism
5499 A mental state is a functional realisation of a brain state when it serves the purpose of the organism [Lycan]
23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 3. Virtues / d. Courage
15640 Courage is not a virtue, but the form of every virtue at its testing point [Lewis,CS]
26. Natural Theory / A. Speculations on Nature / 2. Natural Purpose / c. Purpose denied
5501 People are trying to explain biological teleology in naturalistic causal terms [Lycan]