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    W.E. Johnson's original determinable-determinate distinct... — Carmelics
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    Supports→Armstrong's partial identity account of determinate resemblance cannot handle the full range of cases of determination.

    W.E. Johnson's original determinable-determinate distinction was precisely motivated by such necessary incompatibilities, which identity-based mereology systematically fails to capture.

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    Reasons For

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    • 1.Johnson's determinables (e.g., color) necessarily exclude their determinates (e.g., red vs. blue) from coinstantiation in single objects.
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    • 2.Identity-based mereology treats parts as compositionally additive, unable to represent mutual exclusivity relations between properties.
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    • 3.Capturing necessary incompatibilities requires a framework recognizing determinable-determinate hierarchies as fundamental structural features.
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    Reasons Against

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    • 1.Identity-based mereology can represent exclusions via negation and property instantiation rules without requiring determinable-determinate distinctions.
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    • 2.Johnson's distinction conflates metaphysical incompatibility with conceptual or linguistic relationships, conflating different orders of explanation.
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    • 3.Modern type-token and parthood frameworks adequately capture necessary exclusions without positing a separate determinable ontology.
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    Key Terms

    Determinable-determinate distinction(the core concept being explained)
    A way of understanding properties where some properties are more general (determinable) and others are more specific versions of them (determinate)—like 'color' is determinable and 'red' is a determinate form of it.
    Identity-based mereology(as the contrasting approach that supposedly fails)
    A mathematical approach to studying how parts combine into wholes that treats everything based on what things are identical to (the same as), rather than paying attention to qualities or properties that might conflict with each other.
    Mereology
    The study of the relations between parts and wholes
    Necessary incompatibilities(as what Johnson's theory was designed to explain)
    Situations where two things logically cannot both be true at the same time—like how something cannot be entirely red and entirely blue simultaneously.
    W.E. Johnson(the philosopher whose work is being discussed)
    A British philosopher (1858-1931) who developed important ideas about how we categorize and understand properties and qualities of things.

    Connections

    2 topics

    Modality & Possibility1 linkedPhilosophy of Language1 linked

    Related

    Armstrong's partial identity account of determinate resemblance cannot handle th...Capturing necessary incompatibilities requires a framework recognizing determina...Identity-based mereology can represent exclusions via negation and property inst...Identity-based mereology treats parts as compositionally additive, unable to rep...
    +3 moreShow less
    Johnson's determinables (e.g., color) necessarily exclude their determinates (e....Johnson's distinction conflates metaphysical incompatibility with conceptual or ...

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    2 (1 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit
    Modern type-token and parthood frameworks adequately capture necessary exclusion...