Single Idea 7007

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 9. Qualities]

Full Idea

Some philosophers who accept that properties are intrinsic features of objects regard them as pure powers, pure dispositionalities; I prefer to think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative.

Gist of Idea

I think of properties as simultaneously dispositional and qualitative

Source

John Heil (From an Ontological Point of View [2003], Intro)

Book Reference

Heil,John: 'From an Ontological Point of View' [OUP 2005], p.11


A Reaction

I am uneasy about 'qualitative' as a category, and am inclined to reduce it to being a dispositional power to cause primary and secondary qualities in observers. Roughness is only a power, not a quality, if there are no observers.