Haecceities

2021 ◽  
pp. 100-137
Author(s):  
Joseph Mendola
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Time Slice ◽  
Modal Structure ◽  
Substantial Form ◽  
Ordinary Concrete ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Over Time

This chapter is an account of the particularity of ordinary concrete objects like balls and bikes that appear within our experience. It argues that certain sorts of haecceities, which is to say irreducible individualities or bare particularities, are required to account for the particularity of such things. These haecceities involve modal structure of a distinctive sort. Various accounts are explored. But the central model developed involves haecceities of minimal spatial and temporal material bits, which help in turn to constitute the present time slice of a perceived object. This time slice could occur at different times or in different possible worlds, and instantiates a substantial form that constrains, in a perdurantist manner, available forms of identity over time rooted in concrete relations.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Joseph Mendola
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Proper Understanding ◽  
Modal Structure ◽  
Ordinary Concrete ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Concrete Properties ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Strict Identity ◽  
Ways Of Being

This is an introductory chapter. It sketches the project of the book, which is to understand the ontology of a central class of particulars, and of their most basic and central properties and relations. This central class encompasses the commonsense entities that our experience seems naïvely to reveal. First of all, there are ordinary visible objects like balls and cars. The book investigates the kind of particularity they present in experience. Second, there are locations in space and time that such ordinary things occupy, and which have a somewhat different sort of particularity. Third, there are the material bits that make up the balls and cars. The proper understanding of both the particularity and the concrete properties and relations of ordinary concrete objects like these demands certain metaphysical novelties. It requires a return to the ancient conception that there is a difference between different ways of being, specifically between the existence of actual tables and chairs with their evident colors and shapes on one hand, and what might be called “the subsistence” of certain merely possible beings on the other. But it also requires the recognition of various sorts of unity relations less than strict identity, which for instance relate determinable and relevantly determinate properties. All these novelties involve distinctive forms of modal structure.

Universals

2021 ◽  
pp. 173-225
Author(s):  
Joseph Mendola
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Properties ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Temporal Relations ◽  
Modal Structure ◽  
Substantial Form ◽  
Ordinary Concrete ◽  
Basic Properties ◽  
Fundamental Properties ◽  
Transcendental Realism ◽  
Structural Universals

Immanent realism is the view that some fundamental properties are immanent universals, entities that can exist wholly in different places at the same time that yet only exist when instanced. This chapter develops the proper immanent realist account of the basic properties and relations that appear in our experience. It includes a new understanding of the relation between determinate and determinable universals. Another novelty involves determinable structural universals constituting one fundamental substantial form of ordinary concrete particulars. Various other complexities of modal structure are developed. Cases discussed include phenomenal color, other sensory properties, spatial and temporal relations, causal powers, and substantial forms. Some affinities but also differences with transcendental realism are considered.

Problems of Individuation

2021 ◽  
pp. 43-70
Author(s):  
Joseph Mendola
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Ordinary Concrete ◽  
Over Time

This chapter is an introduction to problems regarding the individuation of the ordinary concrete particulars of our experience. There are three problems of unity. These are what makes up the unity of the parts of a single particular at a time, what makes for the unity of a particular over time despite change, and what makes for its identity across possible worlds. There are also corresponding problems of difference, regarding what makes two otherwise identical particulars distinct. This chapter explore serious difficulties—especially modal difficulties—that arise when we place standing solutions to these problems in juxtaposition.

scholarly journals Modal logic and logic of fiction

2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-62
Author(s):  
Vladimir Nocic ◽  
Jasmina Nocic
Keyword(s):  
Literary Theory ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Saul Kripke ◽  
Possible Worlds Semantics ◽  
Nicholas Rescher ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Possible Worlds Theory ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Transworld Identity

This paper analyzes the views of representative theoreticians of possible worlds semantics and possible worlds theory in an attempt to ascertain the degree and manner of interdisciplinary borrowing through focusing on possible worlds and individuals in those worlds. The paper first clarifies the general perceptions of possible worlds, perceptions in the field of modal restrictions, transworld identity, and identity over time, as presented in the works of Saul Kripke, David Lewis, and Nicholas Rescher, the representative semanticists of possible worlds, and then ascertains the degree and manner of their adaptations in the theory proposed by Ljubomir Dolezel within literary theory. The conclusion is that the cooperation between the two disciplines stands on fertile ground but that it is necessary to perform more systematic adaptations due to different subjects of research and different objectives.

Two Geometrical Models for Pixelism

Metaphysica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113
Author(s):  
Fabio Patrone
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Dimensional Space ◽  
Counterpart Theory ◽  
Mereological Nihilism ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
Consistent Manner ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Radical Form

AbstractPixelism is the combination of three metaphysical thesis, namely a radical form of exdurantism, mereological nihilism and counterpart theory. Pixelism is a theory that evaluates all the metaphysical phenomena of persistence, composition and modality in a homogeneous and consistent manner. In a pixel world, there is no identity over time and over possible worlds and nothing persists over more than an instant or a world. Entities can be univocally identified by a five-coordinates system (the three spatial dimensions, the temporal one and the possible worlds), and their relation is a counterpart relation both in different worlds and at different times or different regions of space. In this paper I will provide two models for pixelism: the first one takes pixels to be hypercubes, i. e. four-dimensional cubes, the acceptance of which is conditional on the acceptance of extended simples. The second one considers pixels as points in a four-dimensional space.

Possible worlds

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Melia
Keyword(s):  
Modal Logic ◽  
Actual World ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Abstract Objects ◽  
Causal Powers ◽  
Possible World ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Concrete Objects

The concept of Possible worlds arises most naturally in the study of possibility and necessity. It is relatively uncontroversial that grass might have been red, or (to put the point another way) that there is a possible world in which grass is red. Though we do not normally take such talk of possible worlds literally, doing so has a surprisingly large number of benefits. Possible worlds enable us to analyse and help us understand a wide range of problematic and difficult concepts. Modality and modal logic, counterfactuals, propositions and properties are just some of the concepts illuminated by possible worlds. Yet, for all this, possible worlds may raise more problems than they solve. What kinds of things are possible worlds? Are they merely our creations or do they exist independently of us? Are they concrete objects, like the actual world, containing flesh and blood people living in alternative realities, or are they abstract objects, like numbers, unlocated in space and time and with no causal powers? Indeed, since possible worlds are not the kind of thing we can ever visit, how could we even know that such things exist? These are but some of the difficult questions which must be faced by anyone who wishes to use possible worlds.

Modeling a Perspective on the World

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-83
Author(s):  
Robert C. Stalnaker
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
David Lewis ◽  
Cognitive State ◽  
The World ◽  
Over Time

It is argued, following David Lewis, that we should model a cognitive state by a set of centered possible worlds, since this is required to represent the believer’s self-locating or indexical knowledge and belief. But it is also argued, contra Lewis, that we should take the contents of belief to be propositions, represented by sets of uncentered possible worlds, since this is required to give a perspicuous account of agreement and disagreement of different agents, and of change of belief over time. Reconciling these two thoughts requires a defense of Propositionality: roughly, the thesis that any ignorance of where one is in the world is also ignorance about what the world in itself is like. This thesis is defended against some criticisms, and motivated by an externalist picture of knowledge and intentionality.

scholarly journals ANTHROPOCENTRICITY PRINCIPLE AS AN INSTRUMENT FOR PEDESTRIAN SPACES DESIGN

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-75
Author(s):  
Yulia L. BUGAEVA
Keyword(s):  
Quality Parameters ◽  
Walking Distance ◽  
Limited Mobility ◽  
Advanced Phase ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Pedestrian Space ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Barrier Free

The principle of anthropocentricity implies the organization of barrier-free pedestrian space corresponding to norms of walking, and criteria of quality and comfort for multi groups. The defi nition of pedestrian spaces and their more advanced phase - integrated pedestrian spaces is proposed in the article. The physiological capabilities of the pedestrian, including people with limited mobility, which form the parametric characteristics of pedestrian spaces, such as radius of the walking distance, absolute and to concrete objects, are identifi ed . The development dynamics of pedestrian spaces quantity and quality parameters over time is revealed.

scholarly journals Analysis of U.S. patents network

2005 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nataša Kejžar
Keyword(s):  
Research And Development ◽  
Citation Network ◽  
Time Slice ◽  
Temporal Network ◽  
Development Patterns ◽  
The Past ◽  
Search Path ◽  
Entire Network ◽  
Over Time

The NBER network of U.S. patents from 1963 to 1999 (Hall, Jaffe, Tratjenberg 2001, USPTO) is an example of a very large citation network (3774768 vertices and 16522438 arcs). Using islands algorithm (Zaverˇsnik, Batagelj, 2004) for the Search Path Count (SPC) weights (Hummon and Doreian 1989; Batagelj 2003) the most powerful theme in the entire network was determined. From this we selected a group of companies and categories that appeared and split the entire network into subnetworks according to selected companies and technological categories. We study the general trends and features of the subnetworks over the past thirty-seven years. We propose another approach for studying patents' network as a temporal network. Vertices from the same category in the same time slice are shrunk and then the obtained smaller networks over time are studied. By studying development patterns of the network over time we are trying to determine the general trends in the research and development for the selected companies and categories over the past three decades.

scholarly journals Children's use of argument structure, meta-knowledge of the lexicon, and extra-linguistic contextual cues in inferring meanings of novel verbs

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mutsumi Imai
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Sound Symbolism ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Contextual Cues ◽  
Verb Learning ◽  
Concrete Objects ◽  
Linguistic Cues ◽  
Japanese English ◽  
Over Time

Verbs are the centerpiece of the sentence, and understanding of verb meanings is essential for language acquisition. Yet verb learning is said to be more challenging than noun learning for young children for several reasons. First, while nouns tend to denote concrete objects, which are perceptually stable over time, verbs tend to refer to action events, which are temporally ephemeral, and the beginning and the end of the action referred to by the verb are not clearly specified. Second, a verb takes nouns as arguments, and the meaning of a verb is determined as the relation between the arguments. To infer the meaning of a verb, children need to attend to the relation between the objects in the event rather than the objects themselves. In so doing, children make use of a variety of cues such as argument structure, meta-knowledge of the lexicon, and extra-linguistic contextual cues. In this paper, I present two lines of my recent research concerning young children's novel verb learning. Specifically, I first report a cross-linguistic study (Imai et al., 2008) examining how Japanese-, English-, and Chinese-speaking children utilize structural and non-structural, extra-linguistic cues when inferring novel verb meanings. Second, I present another study examining how young children utilize sound-meaning correlates (sound symbolism) in their inference of novel verb meanings. In the end, I evaluate the relative importance of structural cues among different cues children use in verb learning.

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