Economics Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Individuals: In philosophy, individuals are entities that are distinct from other entities. They are typically characterized by their own unique properties and experiences. Individuals can be physical objects, such as humans, animals, and plants, or they can be non-physical objects, such as minds, souls, and thoughts. See also Particulars, Individuation. _____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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John Bigelow on Individuals - Dictionary of Arguments
I 40 Individual/Particular/Bigelow/Pargetter: particulars are something that by definition are never instantiated. >Instantiation. On the other hand: Property/Bigelow/Pargetter: something that is instantiated by definition by things that are never instantiated (individuals). I 48 Individual/Bigelow/Pargetter: individuals also include measurement terms such as e.g. plutonium. Cf. >Natural kinds. I 209 Individuals/Possible World/Variant/Bigelow/Pargetter: we could also specify individuals by describing their position in the course of their existence. >Possible worlds. Through an infinite sequence of quadruples. >Four-dimensionalism. There are many variants, including more economical ones. We can summarize all the positions of a particle in one function. This is also possible for other properties that we attribute to a particle. So we can combine a particle not only with numbers, but also with whole functions. Function: these functions could describe the changes of the particle. >Functions. Book/Bigelow/Pargetter: a book for such a described world could be a Hilbert space. >Modalities/Bigelow. But a book is not a world yet! A book for the actual world would consist of two components: 1. a world property, or a maximum specific structural universal 2. to something that instantiates this universal, that is the world itself. This applies to the actual world! Other possible worlds correspond to a universal, but this is not instantiated, so there is no world here. Representation/Bigelow/Pargetter: now the numbers representing these world properties could seem all too abstract. I 210 But they are not! They represent the proportions in which the properties of the parts are related to each other that we have chosen as units. >Proportions._____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Big I J. Bigelow, R. Pargetter Science and Necessity Cambridge 1990 |
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> Counter arguments against Bigelow
> Counter arguments in relation to Individuals
