scholarly journals Essential Properties Are Super-Explanatory: Taming Metaphysical Modality

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARION GODMAN ◽  
ANTONELLA MALLOZZI ◽  
DAVID PAPINEAU
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Metaphysical Modality ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
The Way

AbstractThis article aims to build a bridge between two areas of philosophical research: the structure of kinds and metaphysical modality. Our central thesis is that kinds typically involve super-explanatory properties, and that these properties are therefore metaphysically essential to natural kinds. Philosophers of science who work on kinds tend to emphasize their complexity, and are generally resistant to any suggestion that they have essences. The complexities are real enough, but they should not be allowed to obscure the way that kinds are typically unified by certain core properties. We show how this unifying role offers a natural account of why certain properties are metaphysically essential to kinds.

scholarly journals From Essence to Metaphysical Modality?

Axiomathes ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harold W. Noonan
Keyword(s):  
Metaphysical Modality ◽  
De Re ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
The Way

AbstractHow can we acquire knowledge of metaphysical modality? How can someone come to know that he could have been elsewhere right now, or an accountant rather than a philosophy teacher, but could not have been a turnip? Jago proposes an account of a route to knowledge of the way things could have been and must be. He argues that we can move to knowledge of metaphysical modality from knowledge about essence. Curtis rejects Jago’s explanation. It cannot, he argues, explain our knowledge of de re necessity. We agree. But there is more to be said. To give an account of our knowledge of metaphysical necessity is part of the task Jago set himself. But another part is to give an account of the knowledge of the (non-actual) possibilities accorded to particular objects. And prior to both what is needed, and something Jago attempts to supply, is an account of how ordinary knowers can come to have knowledge of an individual’s essential properties. We argue that Jago’s accounts of both these additional matters are also unsatisfactory. This is important because the thought that our knowledge of metaphysical modality has its source in our knowledge of essence is currently an attractive one and Jago has set out very clearly what must be done to justify the thought. The flaws in his proposal thus indicate the work needed if the attractive thought is to be accepted.

scholarly journals What (If Anything) Can Justify Basic Income Experiments? Balancing Costs and Benefits in terms of Justice

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josette Daemen
Keyword(s):  
Policy Making ◽  
Opportunity Costs ◽  
Basic Income ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Practical Recommendations ◽  
The Way

Abstract The central thesis of this essay is that basic income experiments are justified if their expected benefits in terms of justice exceed their expected costs in terms of justice. The benefits are a function of basic income’s effect on the level of justice attained in the context in which it is implemented, and the experiment’s impact on future policy-making. The costs comprise the sacrifices made as a result of the experiment’s interventional character, as well as the study’s opportunity costs. In light of the proposed standard of justification for basic income experiments, the factors that play a role in it, and the way these interact with one another, this essay provides some practical recommendations for researchers hoping to conduct such an experiment.

The World Essence

Dialogue ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Bigelow
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kind ◽  
Actual World ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Joint Paper ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
The World ◽  
Natural Necessity

Recently, Brian Ellis came up with a neat and novel idea about laws of nature, which at first I misunderstood. Then I participated, with Brian Ellis and Caroline Lierse, in writing a joint paper, “The World as One of a Kind: Natural Necessity and Laws of Nature” (Ellis, Bigelow and Lierse, forthcoming). In this paper, the Ellis idea was formulated in a different way from that in which I had originally interpreted it. Little weight was placed on possible worlds or individual essences. Much weight rested on natural kinds. I thought Ellis to be suggesting that laws of nature attribute essential properties to one grand individual, The World. In fact, Ellis is hostile towards individual essences for any individuals at all, including The World. He is comfortable only with essential properties of kinds, rather than individuals. The Ellis conjecture was that laws of nature attribute essential properties to the natural kind of which the actual world is one (and presumably the only) member.

'Erro de Descartes' ou Erro de um Título?

1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (7) ◽  
pp. 163-170
Author(s):  
Maria Luísa Ribeiro Ferreira ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Body Problem ◽  
Body Interaction ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
Mind Body Problem ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Philosophical Questions ◽  
The Way

In this article we summarize the central thesis of A. Damásio in his book Descartes' Error. We appreciate the scientifical interest of this work but we criticize the way some philosophical questions are stated, namely the concept of reason and Descartes’ contribution to the mind - body problem. When Damásio accuses Descartes of being guilty for sustaining a «disimbodied mind», he forgets the works where this philosopher explores the mind-body interaction and his broad concept of thinking as including feeling and will. Therefore, we question the title of this work and the false expectations it can produce on his readers.

Biological Traits in Artificial Self-Reproducing Systems

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Eleonora Bilotta ◽  
Pietro Pantano
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Cell Development ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Biological Cell ◽  
Universal Models ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Self Replication ◽  
The Way

This article presents an artificial taxonomy of 2-D, self-replicating cellular automata (CA) that can be considered as proto-organisms for structure replication. The authors found that the process of self-reproduction is a widespread mechanism. In fact, self-reproducers in 2-D CA are very common and the authors discovered almost 10 methods of self-replication. The structures these systems produce, from ordered to complex ones, are very similar to those found in biological endeavor. After examining self-replicating structures and the way they reproduce, the authors consider their behavior in relation to the patterns they realize and to the function they manifest in realizing artificial organisms. According to the authors, many methods produced by CA are based on universal models of biological cell development. The relevance of such work consists in the goal of modeling the evolution of living systems that can lead us to a better understanding of the essential properties of life.

Ostension, Names and Natural Kind Terms

Dialogue ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohan Matthen
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kind ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Saul Kripke ◽  
Contemporary Philosophy ◽  
Recent Issue ◽  
Natural Kind Terms ◽  
Kind Terms ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Theory Of Descriptions

It seems to be a part of the oral and written tradition of contemporary philosophy that Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam have resurrected a kind of Aristotelianism about natural kinds by reference to purely semantic ideas. Thus in a recent issue of the Journal of Philosophy, M. R. Ayers writes that according to Kripke and Putnam: “The names ‘gold’, ‘tiger’ etc. have their meaning … by being the name of, or, more technically, by ‘rigidly designating’, a natural kind.” And in the immediately following pages he suggests that the view Kripke and Putnam arrive at is “not at all unlike Aristotelian doctrine”, but arrived at from “the rather special point of view of a concern with modal logic, and against the background of Russell's theory of descriptions, the modern obsession with proper names, and so forth”. Presumably what Ayers is alleging here is that something like the Aristotelian position on substance, species, essential properties and so forth is or is intended to be the outcome of the Kripke-Putnam investigations.

scholarly journals God, Supernatural Kinds, and the Incarnation

1991 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 353-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas D. Senor
Keyword(s):  
Natural Kinds ◽  
English Word ◽  
Primary Task ◽  
Philosophical Theology ◽  
Kind Terms ◽  
Alternative Understanding ◽  
The Way

Thinking about God often leads to thinking about ‘God’. And it has never been completely clear how best to understand this little English word. Traditionally, ‘God’ has been taken to be either a description or a name. However, a third option has recently captured the attention of philosophical theologians. It is claimed that just as one should think of, say, ‘humanity’ as a kind term, so one should think of ‘God’, or perhaps ‘divinity’, as a kind term. But given the tight link between semantics and metaphysics, if one is tempted to understand ‘humanity’ or ‘divinity’ as kind terms, then one will naturally begin to think of humanity and divinity as kinds. Characterizing divinity this way, a primary task of philosophical theology is to give a characterization of the divine kind-essence. In this paper, I want to consider the claim that divinity is profitably construed as a kind-essence, and argue that the way that this has typically been understood is not altogether adequate. I shall then present and develop an alternative understanding of this kind-essence approach that takes the analogy of `supernatural kinds’ and natural kinds much more seriously. I will conclude by considering some objections.

scholarly journals Induction and Natural Kinds Revisited

2021 ◽  
pp. 284-300
Author(s):  
Howard Sankey
Keyword(s):  
Actual World ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Inductive Inference ◽  
Natural Kinds ◽  
Problem Of Induction ◽  
Shared Set ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
The World ◽  
Dispositional Essentialism ◽  
Previous Account

Howard Sankey reconsiders a special issue closely connected with causal powers—the problem of induction. He addresses a deep version of problem of circularity originally raised by Psillos, and argues that the circularity can be avoided. The key is recognizing certain epistemically externalist results of the Megaric consequences of the commitment to dispositional essentialism. Circularity can be avoided, Sankey argues, because it is the way the world is, rather than the inductive inference itself, that grounds the reliability of the inductive inference in his previous account. What are doing the work for Sankey here are the Megaric consequences of his adoption of Ellis’s dispositional essentialism. The uniformity in question is one that stretches across possible worlds: nature is uniform in the precise sense that there are natural kinds whose members all possess a shared set of essential properties. The significance of this commitment lies in how the possible and the temporal intersect through restrictions placed on the accessibility relation between the actual and the possible. Ipso facto, when considering questions about the future behaviours of objects, which is how Sankey understands the problem of induction to be, the uniformity of nature can ground the reliability of beliefs about those future behaviours precisely because the domain of possibility is restricted to those worlds accessible to the actual world, which is fixed by the commitments of dispositional essentialism.

scholarly journals Influencia del profesorado en la integración escolar del alumnado minoritario

10.14201/2873 ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Antonio Jordán
Keyword(s):  
Great Influence ◽  
Professional Responsibility ◽  
School Integration ◽  
Positive Interactions ◽  
Central Thesis ◽  
Dynamics Characteristic ◽  
Sobre Todo ◽  
Ordinary Teaching ◽  
The Way

RESUMEN: En este estudio se realiza un análisis de la gran influencia que los profesores ejercen sobre la integración escolar de los alumnos culturalmente minoritarios, a través de su forma de «ser» y de «actuar» en la dinámica cotidiana propia de la enseñanza diaria. La investigación y la teoría analizada en este artículo muestra cómo los profesores pueden —y deben— contribuir poderosamente a lograr una afectiva y social integración escolar de esta categoría de alumnado a través de las mil interacciones positivas diarias mantenidas con estos alumnos. También se pone claramente de manifiesto que los datos analizados deben contribuir, sobre todo, a despertar la conciencia profesional de los profesores a fin de capacitarlos para ser reflexivos, sensibles y comprometidos con la suerte escolar de este tipo de alumnado minoritario. En definitiva, la tesis central encerrada en este artículo es que los profesores resultan ser «los instrumentos por excelencia de los instrumentos pedagógicos», también para conseguir una genuina integración escolar de este tipo de alumnos diferentes.ABSTRACT: This study carnes out an analysis of the great influence that teachers have on the school integration concerning culturally minoritary students, both through the way they «are» and the way they «act» in the daily dynamics characteristic of ordinary teaching. The research and theory analized in this work show how the teachers can —and must— contribute strongly to the affective and social school integration of this kind of students in the thousand and one daily positive interactions with these students. Also it's strongly suggested that the data analysed should contribute to awaken the professional conscience of teachers in order to form a moral and professional responsibility in them that qualifies them to be reflective, sensitive and committed with this kind of minoritary students. In short, the central thesis which lies behind this paper is that the teachers are «the better instruments of the pedagogical instruments » for get a genuine school integration of these different students.

Biological Traits in Artificial Self-Reproducing Systems

2011 ◽  
pp. 109-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eleonora Bilotta ◽  
Pietro Pantano
Keyword(s):  
Cellular Automata ◽  
Cell Development ◽  
Living Systems ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Biological Cell ◽  
Universal Models ◽  
Essential Properties ◽  
Self Replication ◽  
The Way

This chapter presents an artificial taxonomy of 2-D, self-replicating cellular automata (CA) that can be considered as proto-organisms for structure replication. We found that the process of self-reproduction is a widespread mechanism. In fact, self-reproducers in 2-D CA are very common and we discovered almost 10 methods of self-replication. The structures these systems produce, from ordered to complex ones, are very similar to those found in biological endeavor. After examining self-replicating structures and the way they reproduce, we consider their behavior in relation to the patterns they realize and to the function they manifest in realizing artificial organisms. According to us, many methods produced by CA are based on universal models of biological cell development. The relevance of such work consists in the goal of modeling the evolution of living systems that can lead us to a better understanding of the essential properties of life.

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