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Essence
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Spanish and Latin American Metaphysics
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Peter of Spain (13th c.)
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Logic
• From the 13th to the 17th century in Europe, logic, as one of seven liberal arts, formed part of the core of university education.
• The standard textbook taught in the universities, which went through 166 editions, was the Tractatus, also known as the Summulae Logicales, of Peter of Spain.
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Scholasticism
• Peter of Spain became a leading emblem of Scholasticism, the method of dialectical reasoning that dominated medieval universities.
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The Scholastic Method• Examine a question or a work by a significant
author.
• Survey various approaches to the issue.
• Find points of disagreement among these sources.
• Use logic and the analysis of language to resolve the dispute, ideally by reconciling the views and revealing a deeper agreement.
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Tree of Porphyry
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Language --> World
• To understand the structure of the world in its broadest outlines, we need to understand the structure of language.
• Structure of language --> Structure of World
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Compositionality• To analyze the structure of language, we must
distinguish
– complex expressions, which have other expressions as components, from
– simple expressions, which do not.
• We break down complex expressions into their simple components.
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Terms
• Some simple terms, such as not, if, of, such, as, and the like, are syncategorematic: They organize language but themselves do not refer to anything in the world.
• Others, including proper names and common nouns, are categorematic; they refer to substances or things of other categories.
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Ontological Commitment
• We can understand what there must be in the world by
– analyzing categorematic terms and
– seeing what they refer to.
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Semantics --> Ontology• Peter’s central idea is that metaphysics rests on
semantics, the theory of meaning.
• To find out what there is in the world,
– analyze language,
– understand what it means, and
– see what objects have to exist for what you say about the world to be true.
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Peter’s Ontology• Peter’s own metaphysical stance is fairly neutral.
• His theory of supposition holds that
– proper names stand for objects and that
– common nouns stand either for a kind of object or for the individual objects falling under them.
• He commits himself, in other words, to what Aristotle would call primary and secondary substances: individual objects and kinds.
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Daniel
Categorematic Terms
‘Triangle’
A triangle
Essence:Triangularity
means,connotes
refers to,denotes
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Identity through Change
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Contrary Qualities
• Substances admit contrary qualities
• How is that possible?
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Contrary Qualities
• Substances admit contrary qualities
• Change:
• x can be F at time t but not F at time t’
• How is that possible?
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Descartes
Solid Not Solid
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Change
Solid Not Solid
F Not F
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Change• a is F at t1 a is not F at t2
• But nothing can be both F and not F
• So: The premises can’t be true together
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Parmenides
Solid Not Solid
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Parmenides• Principle: Nothing can
have contrary qualities
• Change: Fa —> not Fa
• But a can’t be F and not F
• So, change is unreal:
• Fa —> Fa
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Parmenides
Solid Not Solid
WTF?Change is
impossible!
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Heraclitus
Solid Not Solid
Not thesame wax!
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Heraclitus• Principle: Nothing can
have contrary qualities
• Change: Fa —> not Fa
• But a can’t be F and not F
• So, it’s not the same object:
• Fa —> not Fb
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Heraclitus
Solid Not Solid
Not thesame wax!
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• Principle: Nothing can have contrary qualities
• Change: Fa —> not Fa
• Not the same quality:
• a is F-at-t and not F-at-t’
Common Sense
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• Principle: Substances can have contrary qualities
• Change: Fa —> not Fa
• F is accidental to a
• Why is it the same object? Same essence (E):
• Ea and Fa —> Ea and not Fa
Aristotle
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• Principle: Substances can have contrary qualities
• Change: Fa —> not Fa
• Why is it the same object? Continuity of stages:
• Ea and Fa —> Ea and not Fa —> not Fa and Ga —> Ga and Ha —> ....
Locke
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Essences
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Accidental Properties
• Accidental property: without it, the thing can remain the same
• Accidental properties are contingent
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Essential Properties• Essential property: without it, the thing wouldn’t be
what it is
• Essential properties are necessary
• Thing has them by virtue of what it is
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My Accidental Properties
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My Essential Properties
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Essential properties• The essence of x =
• what it is to be x
• what x is by virtue of itself
• what x is by its very nature
• what is expressed by a definition of x (a “formula for the nature of” x)
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What is a substance?• Matter
• Form
• Combination of matter and form
• Essence
• The river can remain the same even though the water constantly flows
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Essences and causes• St. Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274)
• Essences as causes
• Quiddity: “whatness”, “what it is”— definition in re
• Nature of x: what makes x what it is; that by virtue of which x is what it is
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Four causes• Formal: relies on essence
or definition
• Material: matter
• Efficient: chain of events, production
• Final: goal, purpose, function
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Four Causes
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Four Causes of a House
• Efficient Cause:
• Final Cause:
• Formal Cause:
• Material Cause:
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Four Causes of a House
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Aquinas on Essence
• The essence of x = the properties necessary to x, without which x would not be what it is
• The quiddity of x = what corresponds to x’s definition in the world
• The nature of x = what makes x what it is
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Aquinas on Essence
• The essence of wax = the properties necessary to wax, without which wax would not be wax
• The quiddity of wax = what corresponds to wax’s definition in the world
• The nature of wax = what makes wax what it is
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Aquinas on Essence
• The essence of wax = ?? a combination of:
• The quiddity of wax = compound that is malleable near ambient temperatures
• The nature of wax = organic compound that consists of long alkyl chains (CnH2n+1 or CnH2n-1).
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