Philosophy Dictionary of ArgumentsHome | |||
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Nature, philosophy: nature is usually defined as the part of reality that was not made or designed by humans. No properties can be attributed to nature. E.g. since contradiction is ultimately a language problem, one can say that nature cannot be contradictory. Not all forms of necessity can be attributed to nature, e.g. non-logical necessity and unnecessary existence. See also de re, de dicto, necessity de re, existence._____________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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Ruth Millikan on Nature - Dictionary of Arguments
I 247 Thing/nature/being/classical realism/Millikan: because permanent objects could not step in front of the (only momentary conscious) mind, the thing and its nature had to be separated. (Nature is eternal and necessary, the thing is transient and accidental). >Realism. Nature/classical realism: was sometimes interpreted in a simplistic way as a set of properties. Problem: how can the nature of a transient thing, its very identity, be a set of eternal properties? Identity/MillikanVsRealism: how can the identity of a thing be something other than this thing again? But that did not worry the philosophers back then. >Identity/Millikan, >Reality, >Properties/Millikan._____________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. |
Millikan I R. G. Millikan Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for Realism Cambridge 1987 Millikan II Ruth Millikan "Varieties of Purposive Behavior", in: Anthropomorphism, Anecdotes, and Animals, R. W. Mitchell, N. S. Thomspon and H. L. Miles (Eds.) Albany 1997, pp. 189-1967 In Der Geist der Tiere, D Perler/M. Wild, Frankfurt/M. 2005 |