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. | |||
Author | Concept | Summary/Quotes | Sources |
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Uwe Meixner on Individuals - Dictionary of Arguments
I 56f Def INDIVIDUAL/Meixner: individual-like objects: Example "the round square", but also e.g., Sherlock Holmes, fictitious persons and their parts of the body, of which it cannot be said whether they have certain properties or not - "the man who knew that he knew nothing": not Socrates, but INDIVIDUAL (overdetermined: knowledge/ignorance). >Fiction, >Knowledge, >Predication, >Attribution. I 52ff INDIVIDUAL/Meixner: set of all properties (instead of individual): n.b.: if one element is missing, completely different set (identity of sets through identity of the elements). Therefore all properties are necessary. >Extensionality, cf. >Identity/Henrich. ((s) E.g. determined person at a particular point in time.) Example Meixner: "george w.bush" is necessarily President (not in the case of Bush). >Necessity, cf. >Identity/D.Lewis. I 58 INDIVIDUAL/Meixner: apart from an individual, whose properties are at least partly contingent, there is an INDIVIDUAL assigned to it, which simply consists of the set of the same properties (at that point in time). Since a set loses its identity when an element changes, all properties are necessary here. Cf. >Contingency. MeixnerVsLewis: confuses individual with INDIVIDUAL: counterpart needs its properties, because it is individuated by the set (because it is only even singled out by it). >Counterpart/Lewis, >Counterpart theory, >Counterpart relation._____________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. |
Mei I U. Meixner Einführung in die Ontologie Darmstadt 2004 |