The Ultimate Sortal Determination Space. The Nature of Ontological Categories
Authors
-
José Tomás Alvarado
Universidad de Los Andes
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2324-8458
Download
Abstract
Ontological categories have been traditionally understood as the ‘highest genera’. This idea, nevertheless, has been criticized by contemporary philosophers because generality is easy to get. Other proposals to conceive categories have focused on the failures of substitution of terms salva significatione. Others have focused on the difference in conditions of identity between entities belonging to different categories. None of those attempts have gained general acceptance. This work explains and defends a new perspective about ontological categories. It is argued that many of the problems that affect other conceptions are overcome if one supposes that the categories constitute a determination space of ultimate sortals. On the one hand, there are criteria to distinguish ultimate sortals from arbitrarily general types of entities, and criteria to dismiss (allegedly) subordinated categories. On the other hand, Sommer’s law –the requirement that if something falls under two categories, either they are identical or one of them is subordinated to the other– can be vindicated as following from general principles about ultimate sortals.
Keywords:
Ontological Category , Determinable-Determinate , Sortal , Essence , Sommers’ LawReferences
Alvarado, J. T. (2020) A Metaphysics of Platonic Universals and Their Instantiations. Shadow of Universals. Springer.
___. (s.f.). Propiedades negativas y espacios de determinación. Academia.edu. https://www.academia.edu/113219070/Propiedades_negativas_y_espacios_de_determinaci%C3%B3n
Aristóteles. (2009). Categorías. De la interpretación (J. Mittelmann, trad., intro. y notas). Losada.
___. (1998). Metafísica. (T. Calvo, trad., intro. y notas). Gredos.
Brody, B. A. (1980). Identity and Essence. Princeton UP.
Chisholm, R. (1996), A Realistic Theory of Categories. Cambridge University Press.
Dummett, M. (1981). Frege. Philosophy of Language. Harvard UP.
Fine, K. (1994). Essence and Modality. Philosophical Perspectives, 8, 1-16.
Frege, G. (1884). Die Grundlagen der Arithmetik. Eine logisch mathematische Untersuchung über den Begriff der Zahl. Wilhelm Koebner.
Freund, M. A. (2019). The Logic of Sortals. A Conceptualist Approach. Springer.
Geach, P. T. (1962). Reference and Generality. An Examination of Some Medieval and Modern Theories. Cornell UP.
Grossmann, R. (1983). The Categorial Structure of the World. University of Indiana Press.
Hakkarainen, J., y Keinänen, M. (2023). Formal Ontology. Cambridge UP.
Haaparanta, L., y Koskinen, H. (eds.). (2012). Categories of Being. Essays on Metaphysics and Logic. Oxford UP.
Hoffman, J., y Rosenkrantz, G. (1994). Substance Among Other Categories. Cambridge UP.
Husserl, E. (1900/1984/1929). Logische Untersuchungen. Text der 1. und der 2. Aüflage ergänzt durch Annotationen und Beiblätter aus den Handexemplar Herausgegeben von Ursula Panzer (Husserliana Band XIX). Traducido como Investigaciones lógicas (M. G. Morente y J. Gaos, trads.). Alianza.
___. (1913). Ideen zu einer Phänomenologie und phänomenologischen Philosophie. Erstes Buch. Allgemeine Einführung in die reine Phänomenologie. Martinus Nijhoff
Johnson, W. (1921). Logic. Part I. Cambridge UP.
Lewis, D. (1968). Counterpart Theory and Quantified Modal Logic. The Journal of Philosophy, 65, 113-126.
Locke, J. (1690). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. H. Nidditch (ed. e intro.). Clarendon Press.
Lowe, E. J. (1999). The Possibility of Metaphysics. Substance, Identity, and Time. Clarendon Press.
___. (2006). The Four-Category Ontology. A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science. Clarendon Press.
___. (2009). More Kinds of Being. A Further Study of Individuation, Identity, and the Logic of Sortal Terms. Wiley-Blackwell.
Magidor, O. (2019). Category Mistakes. En E. N. Zalta y U. Nodelman (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/category-mistakes
McDaniel, K. (2017). The Fragmentation of Being. Oxford UP.
Prior, A. N. (1949). Determinables, Determinates and Determinants. Mind, 58, 1-20 y 178-194.
Quine, W. V. O. (1960). Word and Object. MIT Press.
Ryle, G. (1938). Categories. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 38, 189-206.
Searle, J. (1959). Determinables and the Notion of Resemblance. Aristotelian Society. Supplementary, 33, 141-158.
Sommers, F. (1963). Types and Ontology. The Philosophical Review, 72(3), 327-363.
Stevenson, L. (1975). A Formal Theory of Sortal Quantification. Notre Dame Journal of Formal Logic, 16(2), 185-207.
Strawson, P. F. (1959). Individuals. An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics. Methuen.
Thomasson, A. (2022). Categories. En E. N. Zalta y U. Nodelman (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/categories
Van Inwagen, P. (2012). What is an Ontological Category? En L. Novak, D. D. Novotny, P. Sousedik y D. Svoboda (eds.), Metaphysics: Aristotelian, Scholastic, Analytic (pp. 11-24). Ontos.
Westerhoff, J. (2002). Defining ‘Ontological Category’. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, 102, 337-343.
___. (2004). The Construction of Ontological Categories. Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 84(4), 599-620.
___. (2005). Ontological Categories. Their Nature and Significance. Clarendon Press.
Wiggins, D. (1967). Identity and Spatio-Temporal Continuity. Basil Blackwell.
___. (1980). Sameness and Substance. Basil Blackwell.
___. (2001). Sameness and Substance Renewed. Cambridge UP.
Wilson, J. (2023). Determinables and Determinates. En E. N. Zalta y U. Nodelman (eds.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinate-determinables
Woods, J. (1967). On Species and Determinates. Noûs, 1(3), 243-254.
