A theory of essence that severs the link between intrinsic properties and kind membership undermines the semantic stability that makes natural kind terms informative across possible worlds.

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Reasons For

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Reason for

1.Natural kind terms like 'water' derive informativeness from stable reference across contexts, requiring intrinsic properties to anchor meaning.
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2.If essence permits kind membership without intrinsic properties, the same term could refer to fundamentally different substances across possible worlds.
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3.Such reference instability would eliminate the cognitive utility that makes natural kind terms semantically distinct from arbitrary labels.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against

1.Intrinsic properties themselves lack determinate identity across possible worlds—what counts as 'the same property' is equally unstable.
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2.Natural kinds may be stabilized by causal-historical chains or conceptual conventions rather than intrinsic properties, maintaining informativeness.
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3.Some natural kind terms (e.g., 'jade') group heterogeneous substances yet remain informationally useful, suggesting intrinsic uniformity isn't required.
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Key Terms

Informative(epistemology (theory of knowledge)): In this context, it means actually telling us something new or useful—not just restating what we already know in different words.
Semantic stability(Feyerabend argues this assumption is both historically violated and should be violated for scientific progress): The assumption that theoretical terms retain their meaning across successive scientific theories, presupposed by positivist accounts of reduction, explanation, and confirmation
Theory of essence(in metaphysics): A philosophical framework that tries to explain what makes something fundamentally what it is—the core features that define it.
intrinsic properties(Contrasted with structural properties revealed by physics): Properties which supposedly underlie and account for the structural properties of things.
kind membership(as used in metaphysics/philosophy of language): Whether something belongs to a particular category or type (like whether something counts as 'gold' or 'water').
natural kind terms(Putnam (1975)): Terms that refer to natural categories or substances, such as 'gold' and 'water', whose reference is fixed by causal relations to instances of those kinds rather than by descriptive content in the speaker's mind.
possible worlds(Leibniz's modal semantics, anticipating contemporary possible-worlds semantics): Worlds that have existence in a tenuous sense; fictional worlds used to characterize the nature of possibles that are never actualized

Connections

2 topics

Truth & Knowledge1 linked Philosophy of Language1 linked

If essence permits kind membership without intrinsic properties, the same term c...Intrinsic properties themselves lack determinate identity across possible worlds...

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 2 (1 for, 1 against)
Edits: 1 edit