Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Essentialism about origins (Kripke, Salmon) holds that an individual's essential properties include those fixed by their causal-historical origins.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Origin essentialism implies counterintuitively that swapped embryos or infants raised by wrong parents cease to be the same individual.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Many essential properties (rationality, consciousness) are intrinsic and causally independent of how an object came to exist.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.The causal-historical chain is too long and complex to determine which origin facts are truly essential versus merely accidental.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Our intuitions strongly resist cases where an object's origin changes but we call it the same thing (e.g., a painting by Vermeer vs. a forgery).
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Causal-historical facts are objective and determinate, providing a non-arbitrary basis for identity across possible worlds.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Origins explain why individuals have their distinctive properties better than non-historical essences do.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.