Haecceity An Ontological Essay
Many contemporary philosophers are interested in the scotistic notion of haecceity or `thisness' because it is relevant to important problems concerning identity and individuation, reference, modality, and propositional attitudes. Haecceity is the only bo
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PHILOSOPHICAL STUDIES SERIES Founded by Wilfrid S. Sellars and Keith Lehrer
Editor: KEITH LEHRER, University of Arizona
Board of Consulting Editors: JONATHAN BENNETT, Syracuse University ALLAN GIBBARD, University of Michigan ROBERT STALNAKER, Massachusetts Institute of Technology ROBERT G. TURNBULL, Ohio State University
VOLUME 57
GARYS. ROSENKRANTZ University of North Carolina at Greensboro
HAECCEITY An Ontological Essay
SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rosenkrantz. Gary S. Haecceity an ontological essay I by Gary S. Rosenkrantz. p. cm. -- (Philosophical studies seri'es ; v. 57> Includes bibliographical references (p. xxx-xxx) and indexes. ISBN 978-90-481-4311-5 ISBN 978-94-015-8175-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8175-2 1. Title. II. Series. 1. Haecceity (Philosophy)
BD395.5.R67 111--dc20
1993
93-27789
ISBN 978-90-481-4311-5
Printed an acid-free paper
AH Rights Reserved © 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Origina11y published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1993 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover lst edition 1993
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner-
For my parents, Gerald and Hannah, with gratitude and love: without them my individual nature would be unconceived, unexpressed, and unexemplified.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE CHAPTER 1 - INTRODUCTORY PRELIMINAIRES
I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX
Haecceity: An Initial Account Qualitative and Nonqualitative Abstracta Controversies About Haecceities Modal Concepts Cognitive and Linguistic Concepts Haecceities and Individual Essences Varieties of Realism and Anti-Realism The Concrete/Abstract Distinction Qualitative and Nonqualitative Properties
CHAPTER 2- THE PROBLEM OF INDIVIDUATION
I Metaphysical Explanations II Qualitatively Indistinguishable Concreta III Proposed Criteria of Individuation IV Principles of Evaluation for the Proposed Criteria V Evaluations of the Proposed Criteria VI The Haecceity Criterion: Neither Trivial Nor Circular VII Responses To A Priori Objections to Haecceity VIII Haecceity: A Metaphysical Explanation of Diversity CHAPTER 3 -HAECCEITIES AND NONEXISTENT POSSIBLE INDIVIDUALS
I II III IV
The Individuation of NEPs The Individuation of Disjoint Objects Objections To Unexemplified Haecceities: A Reply The Unity of Metaphysical Modalities
CHAPTER 4- SINGULAR REFERENCE AND UNEXEMPLIFIED HAECCEITIES
I Mereological Descriptions ofUnexemplified Haecceities II Causal Descriptions of Unexemplified Haecceities
IX
1 1 6 11 16 22 42 53 56 69 72 72 77 82 93 97 106 124 130 140 140 146 150 166 168 168 179
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I Haecceities and Acquaintance II Haecceities and Re-identification III An Argument for Premise 1 of R IV An Argument for Premise 2 of R V Synchronic Versions of R VI Objections toR and its Anal
