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    Carmelics

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    It is not the case that Aquinas holds that predicates apply to a species in virtue of what belongs to the species as such, making accidental properties of individuals categorically distinct from species-level predication.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Modern biology shows species lack sharp essential boundaries; predicates apply through statistical patterns, not categorical essences.
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    • 2.Individual accidents causally constitute species-level properties; we cannot cleanly separate them into distinct categorical levels.
      ?

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    • 3.The distinction assumes we can identify species essences a priori, but observation suggests essences are theory-laden constructs.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Species have essential natures that persist across individuals; predicates about species refer to these essences, not accidents.
      ?

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    • 2.Accidental properties vary between individuals of the same species; essential predicates must exclude such variation to be meaningful.
      ?

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    • 3.Aquinas's metaphysics requires a principled distinction between what defines a kind and what merely happens to belong to instances.
      ?

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