Real natures and familiar objects / Crawford L. Elder.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Elder, Crawford, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Knowledge, Theory of.
• Ontology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 204 pages)

Other Title:

MIT Press CogNet.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2004]

System Details:

text file

Summary:

In Real Natures and Familiar Objects Crawford Elder defends, with qualifications, the ontology of common sense. He argues that we exist -- that no gloss is necessary for the statement "human beings exist" to show that it is true of the world as it really is -- and that we are surrounded by many of the mediumsized objects in which common sense believes. He argues further that these familiar medium-sized objects not only exist, but have essential properties, which we are often able to determine by observation. The starting point of his argument is that ontology should operate under empirical load -- that is, it should give special weight to the objects and properties that we treat as real in our best predictions and explanations of what happens in the world. Elder calls this presumption "mildly controversial" because it entails that arguments are needed for certain widely assumed positions such as "mereological universalism" (according to which the sum of randomly assembled objects constitutes an object in its own right). Elder begins by defending realism about essentialness (arguing that nature's objects have essential properties whose status as essential is mind-independent). He then defends this view of familiar objects against causal exclusion arguments and worries about vagueness. Finally, he argues that many of the objects in which common sense believes really exist, including artifacts and biological devices shaped by natural selection, and that we too exist, as products of natural selection.

Contents:

• I The Epistemology and Ontology of Essential Natures 1
• 1 Conventionalism: Epistemology Made Easy, Ontology Made Paradoxical 3
• 2 The Epistemology of Real Natures 21
• 3 Real Essential Natures, or Merely Real Kinds? 43
• II Causal Exclusion and Compositional Vagueness 73
• 4 Mental Causation versus Physical Causation: Coincidences and Accidents 75
• 5 Causes in the Special Sciences and the Fallacy of Composition 105
• 6 A Partial Response to Compositional Vagueness 119
• III Toward a Robust Common-sense Ontology 129
• 7 Artifacts and Other Copied Kinds 131
• 8 Why Austerity in Ontology Does Not Work: The Importance of Biological Causation 163.

Notes:

• "A Bradford book."
• Includes bibliographical references (pages 191-197) and index.
• Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Elder, Crawford. Real natures and familiar objects.

ISBN:

• 9780262272261
• 0262272261

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.