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    It is impossible for humans to know that any quality or i... — Carmelics
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    Home/Skepticism
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    It is impossible for humans to know that any quality or idea has a necessary connection with a real essence.

    Skepticism
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Humans have no idea at all of real essences.
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    • 2.Knowledge of a necessary connection between a quality or idea and a real essence requires having an idea of that real essence.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Post-Lockean scientific essentialism (Kripke, Putnam) holds that natural kind terms rigidly designate real essences discoverable through empirical inquiry.
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    • 2.If 'water' necessarily refers to H2O, then we can know that being H2O is necessarily connected to water's causal-dispositional properties.
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    • 3.This grounded necessary connection counts as knowledge of a link between observable qualities and real essence, refuting the impossibility claim.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.The supporting argument conflates having a complete phenomenal idea of X with having sufficient epistemic access to X to ground necessary truths about it.
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    • 2.Structural realists like Worrall argue we can know the relational-mathematical structure of unobservable entities without knowing their intrinsic nature.
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    • 3.Knowledge of necessary connections requires only structural access to essences, not the full Lockean 'idea' the supporting argument demands.
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    Topics

    SkepticismTruth & Knowledge

    Connections

    1 topic

    Perception1 linked

    Related

    Humans have no idea at all of real essences.If 'water' necessarily refers to H2O, then we can know that being H2O is necessa...Knowledge of a necessary connection between a quality or idea and a real essence...Knowledge of necessary connections requires only structural access to essences, ...
    +4 moreShow less
    Post-Lockean scientific essentialism (Kripke, Putnam) holds that natural kind te...Structural realists like Worrall argue we can know the relational-mathematical s...The supporting argument conflates having a complete phenomenal idea of X with ha...This grounded necessary connection counts as knowledge of a link between observa...

    Similar

    Knowledge of a necessary connection between a quality or idea and a re...89%One can understand what something is (its essence) without knowing whe...83%It is possible to understand what something is (its essence) without k...81%It does not follow from the inaccessibility of external substance esse...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: real-essence
    View source passageHide passage
    …it is impossible for us to know, that this or that quality or Idea has a necessary connexion with a real Essence, of which we have no Idea at all, whatever Species that supposed real Essence may be imagined to constitute. (IV.vi.5)
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit