Realism, Essentialism, and Intrinsic Properties: The Case of Molecular Shape

2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffry L. Ramsey
Keyword(s):  
Molecular Structure ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Molecular Shape ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
Spatial Properties ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
Physical Features ◽  
Sensible Qualities

Figure, or shape, has long been ensconced in modern philosophy as a primary or essential quality of matter. Descartes, Malebranche, Hobbes, and Boyle all apparently endorsed the Lockean claim that shape is “in Bodies whether we perceive them or no” (Locke, [1700] 1975, p. 140). In addition, most seventeenth-century philosophers endorsed the inference that because shape is primary, it is one of the “ultimate, irreducible explanatory principles” (Dijksterhuis, 1961, p. 433; cf. Ihde, 1964, p. 28). Locke has often been read in this way, and in Origins of Forms and Qualities, Boyle claims the “sensible qualities . . . are but the effects or consequents of the . . . primary affections of matter,” one of which is figure (quoted in Harré, 1964, p. 80). Little appears to have changed. Most analytic philosophers and realist-minded philosophers of science “would endorse a distinction between primary and secondary qualities” (Smith, 1990, p. 221). Campbell (1972, p. 219) endorses the claim that “shape, size and solidity are generally held to be primary,” even though he argues that “the philosophy of primary and secondary qualities” is confused. Mackie (1976, p. 18) discounts solidity but endorses spatial properties and motion as “basic” physical features of matter. Most philosophers also endorse the inference to the explanatory character of the primary qualities. Mackie (1976, p. 25) asserts spatial properties are “starting points of explanation.” Boyd (1989, pp. 10-11) claims “realists agree” that “the factors which govern the behavior . . . of substances are the fundamental properties of the insensible corpuscles of which they are composed.” As befits our current situation, explanation purportedly flows from spatial microstructure. A body “possesses a certain potential only because it actually possesses a certain property (e.g., its molecular structure)” (Lange, 1994, pp. 109-110). Even Putnam, who argues all properties are Lockean secondaries, claims powers “have an explanation . . . in the particular microstructure” of matter (Putnam, 1981, p. 58).

Qualities, Powers, and Bare Powers in Locke

2021 ◽  
pp. 186-205
Author(s):  
Lisa Downing
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
New Science ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
Matter Theory

Lisa Downing focuses on the important issue of the metaphysics of Locke’s primary–secondary qualities distinction. In recent years this has returned as a topic of scholarly contention. Downing is concerned by the anti-realist trends in recent work on the metaphysics of Locke primary–secondary qualities distinction, and she is keen to defend the claims that Locke was ‘putting forward a kind of realism about secondary qualities’ and that his realism does not readily appear to be a reductive form of realism. Downing begins with the traditional claim that Locke’s distinction was driven by his understanding of matter theory within the new science, like many others in the seventeenth century. From this perspective, she criticizes recent work on the nature and priority of primary qualities, which fail to root the primary in a metaphysical base or connect them to the metaphysical base in the wrong way. Next, she turns toward explaining her own understanding of the subordinate status of the secondary qualities, which brings Downing to Locke’s claim that secondary qualities are ‘mere powers’ and what this meant metaphysically to him.

God in the Philosophy of Alexander

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 124-166
Author(s):  
Katyayanidas Bhattacharya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Space Time ◽  
Explanatory Gap ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
Empirical World ◽  
Previous Level ◽  
The Universe

In the view of Alexander Space-Time or Pure Motion is the basic stuff of the universe, for it is Space-Time or Pure Motion that remains if one thinks out all that can be excluded through a rigorous act of abstraction short of annihilation. Alexander subscribes to the doctrine of emergent evolution and holds that the empirical world in all its ascending levels emerges out of the primal background of Space-Time. The first ascending level of emergence is that of matter with primary qualities; the next ascending level is that of secondary qualities; life emerges in the next ascending level and mind emerges in the next ascending level. Reductive materialism must be rejected, for each new quality emerging in the ascending level is irreducible to the previous level and there is always an explanatory gap between the previous level and the ascending level. The highest of the empirical qualities known to us is mind or consciousness; there is an empirical quality which is to succeed the distinctive empirical quality of our level, that new empirical quality is God or deity. We cannot tell what the nature of deity is; but we can be certain that it is not mere mind or spirit, for no new emergent quality can be reduced to the previous level. Rather deity is what mind or spirit deserves in the ascending order.

Primary–secondary distinction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Fundamental Nature ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
The Status ◽  
Sensory Qualities ◽  
Physical Objects

The terminology of ‘primary and secondary qualities’ is taken from the writings of John Locke. It has come to express a position on the nature of sensory qualities – those which we attribute to physical objects as a result of the sensuous character of sensations they produce when they are perceived correctly by us. Since our senses can be differentiated from each other by the type of sensations they produce, sensory qualities are what Aristotle called ‘proper sensibles’ – those perceptible by one sense only. Colours, sounds, scents and tastes are always regarded as proper to their respective senses. What are the proper sensibles of touch, and whether there is similarly a single family of them, is a matter of controversy; but temperature at least is standardly regarded as proper to this sense. It is such sensory qualities that are candidates for being given the status of secondary qualities. To regard sensory qualities as secondary is to hold that an object’s possession of one is simply a matter of its being disposed to occasion a certain type of sensation when perceived; the object in itself possesses no sensuous character. Primary qualities, by contrast, are those which characterize the fundamental nature of the physical world as it is in itself. They are always taken to include geometrical attributes, and often some space-occupying feature; Locke’s candidate for this latter was solidity. Although the terminology dates from the seventeenth century, this general doctrine goes back to the Greek atomists.

Reid's Primary/Secondary Quality Distinction in a Broad Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-62
Author(s):  
Adam Weiler Gur Arye
Keyword(s):  
Broad Context ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Secondary Quality ◽  
Quality Distinction

The paper focuses on Reid's unique epistemological distinction between the primary and the secondary qualities and examines it in relation to other facets of his philosophy: his stance vis-à-vis the scientific inquiries of secondary qualities; his aesthetics; his analysis of the perception of the primary quality of hardness; his theory of learning. An inquiry into the primary/secondary distinction which takes into account such a broad context will reveal it to be far more sophisticated, dynamic and flexible than an analysis of the distinction which solely takes into consideration the passages in which the Scottish philosopher directly and straightforwardly introduces it.

The Physical Context of Child Development

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48
Author(s):  
Gary W. Evans
Keyword(s):  
Child Development ◽  
Observational Studies ◽  
Physiological Stress ◽  
Personal Characteristics ◽  
Adverse Outcomes ◽  
Structural Quality ◽  
Physical Context ◽  
Physical Setting ◽  
Physical Features

Child development reflects interactions between personal characteristics and the physical and social environment. Psychology, however, lacks analysis of physical features that influence child development. In this article, I describe a preliminary taxonomy of physical-setting characteristics that can influence child development, focusing on environmental stressors such as noise, crowding, and chaos along with structural quality of housing, day care, and schools. Adverse outcomes associated with suboptimal physical settings during childhood include cognitive and socioemotional difficulties along with chronic physiological stress. Both direct effects on the child as well as indirect effects occurring via significant persons surrounding the child are described. Methodological limitations, particularly reliance on observational studies, are a weakness in the current literature, but increasingly more rigorously obtained findings yield converging evidence of the effects of physical settings on child development.

scholarly journals Freeze-drying microscopy in mathematical modeling of a biomaterial freeze-drying

2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Figueiredo Borgognoni ◽  
Joyce da Silva Bevilacqua ◽  
Ronaldo Nogueira de Moraes Pitombo
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Freeze Drying ◽  
Drying Process ◽  
Critical Temperatures ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
Moving Interface ◽  
Energy Consuming ◽  
Sublimation Rates ◽  
Time And Energy

Transplantation brings hope for many patients. A multidisciplinary approach on this field aims at creating biologically functional tissues to be used as implants and prostheses. The freeze-drying process allows the fundamental properties of these materials to be preserved, making future manipulation and storage easier. Optimizing a freeze-drying cycle is of great importance since it aims at reducing process costs while increasing product quality of this time-and-energy-consuming process. Mathematical modeling comes as a tool to help a better understanding of the process variables behavior and consequently it helps optimization studies. Freeze-drying microscopy is a technique usually applied to determine critical temperatures of liquid formulations. It has been used in this work to determine the sublimation rates of a biological tissue freeze-drying. The sublimation rates were measured from the speed of the moving interface between the dried and the frozen layer under 21.33, 42.66 and 63.99 Pa. The studied variables were used in a theoretical model to simulate various temperature profiles of the freeze-drying process. Good agreement between the experimental and the simulated results was found.

Stancetaking in seventeenth-century prefaces on obstetrics

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Alonso Almeida ◽  
Margarita Mele-Marrero
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Power Relationship ◽  
Epistemic Stance ◽  
Authorial Identity ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
The Relationship

This paper deals with authorial stance in prefatory material of Early Modern English manuals on women’s diseases. Publications on this field from between 1612 and 1699 constitute our corpus of study. Original digitalised texts have been analysed manually to identify and detect structures concerning authorial identity and stance, according to the model developed by Marín-Arrese (2009). This model for the identification of effective and epistemic stance strategies enables us to describe both the relationship between the authors and their texts and, more specifically, the power relationship between the writers and their audience. One of the most important conclusions of this study concerns the strategic use of stance markers to enhance the quality of these books and make them appropriate for a wide variety of readers.

Berkeley v. Locke on Primary Qualities

Philosophy ◽  
1980 ◽  
Vol 55 (212) ◽  
pp. 149-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry Stroud
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Standard Interpretation ◽  
Secondary Qualities ◽  
Primary Qualities ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Made In

Locke was once supposed to have argued that since the colours, sounds, odours, and other ‘secondary’ qualities things appear to have can vary greatly according to the state and position of the observer, it follows that our ideas of the ‘secondary’ qualities of things do not ‘resemble’ anything existing in the objects themselves. And Berkeley has been credited with the obvious objection that similar facts about the ‘relativity’ of our perception of ‘primary’ qualities show that they do not ‘resemble’ anything existing in the objects either, so that both ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ qualities exist only ‘in the mind’. The falsity of this view of Locke has been amply demonstrated in recent years, but no corresponding revision has been made in what remains the standard interpretation of Berkeley's criticisms of Locke. His objections therefore appear to be based on misunderstanding and to be irrelevant to what is now seen to be Locke's actual view and his reasons for holding it. I think this account of Berkeley, like the old view of Locke, is a purely fictional chapter in the history of philosophy, and in this paper I try to show that Berkeley's criticisms involve no misunderstanding and amount to a direct denial of the view Locke actually held.

Institutional memory and contemporary history in the House of Commons, 1547–1640

2018 ◽  
pp. 211-228
Author(s):  
Paul Seaward
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
The State ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
House Of Commons ◽  
Institutional Memory ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Parliament in the course of a century after 1547 became almost certainly the best-recorded institution in Britain. This essay considers the nature of institutional memory in the late sixteenth-and early seventeenth-century House of Commons. It concerns firstly the nature and quality of institutional memory, and how, while it relied considerably on non-inscribed memory, it changed with the growth of the written record. It discusses the importance of precedent to parliamentarians, and how precedents were identified and selectively used. But more broadly it considers how written records, both of a formal and official nature and a private and unofficial kind, were developed over the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in order to generate a narrative about parliament that helps to consolidate its landmark status. As a result, parliament came to be recognised and revered as the key institution in the relationship between the state and the individual.

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