24.501: Things, Properties, and All That

Outline

This seminar takes up a bunch of related topics. Under the heading of "things," we'll look at identity (contingent and otherwise), essence, and composition. Under the heading of "properties," we'll look at intrinsicness, the categorical/hypothetical distinction, and maybe resemblance nominalism. Under the heading of "all that," we'll look at the epistemology of essence. Readings will be from Kit Fine, Rae Langton, David Lewis, Michael Burke, Peter van Inwagen, Karen Bennett, Elizabeth Prior, Robert Stalnaker, Michael Smith, Daniel Stoljar, Saul Kripke, and others.

Instructor

Stephen Yablo, Philosophy
Office: E39-314
Phone: 258-0740
Office Hours: by appointment
E-mail: yablo@mit.edu

Meetings

Tuesdays 2:00-5:00 in 36-372

Readings

Papers will be available for copying in the rack by the graduate student mailboxes. See below for a list of likely readings. There may be the odd classroom handout as well.

Requirements

• one 25-page term paper, due at the end of term
• one 5-page expository essay, due in the seventh week
• classroom participation

Notes

• Not all the readings listed for a given week will be equally important; I'll try to indicate the week before what the focus will be.
• Not everything in the coursepack will be discussed during the seminar. But feel free in your term paper to draw on any materials relevant to your topic. I can help you figure out what that might include.
• Depending on class size and interest, presentations may be folded into the mix somewhere.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE: Less-important readings are marked with #. Papers are listed in the order in which they are best read.

September 13 "Real" Contingent Identity

• Kripke, "Identity and Necessity," esp. 66-79
• #Gallois, "Rigid Designation and the Contingency of Identity," 57-76
#
• Gallois, "Occasional Identity," 203-224
• Stalnaker, "Counterparts and Identity," 121-140

September 20 "Ersatz" Contingent Identity

• Lewis, "Counterparts of Persons and Their Bodies," ???
• Yablo, "Identity, Essence, and Indiscernibility" ???

September 27 Two-Thingism

• Johnston, "Constitution is Not Identity," ???
• Thomson, "Statue and Clay," ???
• Fine, "Act, Object, Event," ???

October 5 One-Thingism

• Burke, "Preserving the Principle of One Object to a Place," ???
• Burke, "Dion and Theon," ???
• Burke, "Copper Statues and Pieces of Copper," ???
• Rea, "Constitution and Kind-Membership," ???
• Rea, "The Problem of Material Constitution," ???

October 12 Categorical/Hypothetical

• Pargetter and Prior, "The Dispositional and the Categorical," ???
• Yablo, "Identity, Essence, and Indiscernibility," ???

October 19 Dispositions All The Way Round?

• Blackburn, "Filling in Space," ???
• Holton, "Dispositions All The Way Round," ???
• Shoemaker, "Properties and Causality," ???

October 26 Intrinsic/Extrinsic

• Chisholm, "Identity Through Time," ???
• Kim, "Psychophysical Supervenience"
• Lewis, "Extrinsic Properties
• Lewis, "Natural and Intrinsic," from Plurality of Worlds
• Lewis & Langton, "Defining 'Intrinsic'"
• Yablo, "Intrinsicness"
• Humberstone, "Intrinsic/Extrinsic"
• Sider, "Intrinsic Properties"

November 2 Extrinsics All The Way Round ?

• Langton, excerpts from Kantian Humility, ???
• Smith & Stoljar, "Global Response Dependence and Noumenal Realism," ???

November 9 Resemblance Nominalism

• Price, "Universals and Resemblance," ???
• Armstrong, "Resemblance Nominalism," ???
• somebody, "Resemblance and Topology," ???

November 16 Essence and Modality

• Almog, "The What and the How," ???
• Fine, "Essence and Modality," ???
• Yablo, "Essentialism," ???

November 23 Arguments for Essence

• Kripke, Naming and Necessity, excerpt, ???
• Chalmers, "Mind and Modality,"???
• Yablo, "Textbook Kripkeanism,"???

November 30 Lucidity

• Van Cleve, "Conceivability and the Cartesian Argument for Dualism," ???
• Van Inwagen, "Modal Epistemology," ???
• Yablo, "Real Distinction," ???
• Yablo, "Is Conceivability...?" ???

• Della Rocca, "Essentialism and Essentialists," ???
• Bennett, "Are De Re Conceivability Arguments Question-Begging?" ???
• Yablo, "Real Distinction," ???
• Yablo, "Is Conceivability...?" ???

Readings

1. Almog, "The What and the How"
2. Armstrong, "Resemblance Nominalism," from Universals
3. Bennett, "Are De Re Conceivability Arguments Question-Begging?"
4. Blackburn, "Filling in Space"
5. Burke, "Copper Statues and Pieces of Copper"
6. Burke, "Dion and Theon"
7. Burke, "Preserving the Principle of One Thing to One Place"
8. Carter, "Contingent Identity and Rigid Designation"
9. Chalmers, "Mind and Modality"
10. Chisholm, "Identity Through Time," from Person and Object
11. Della Rocca, "Essentialism and Essentialists"
12. Fine, "Acts, Objects, and Events"
13. Fine, "Essence and Modality"
14. Gallois, "Rigid Designation and the Contingency of Identity," ???
15. Gallois, "Occasional Identity"
16. Gallois, "Carter on Contingent Identity and Rigid Designation"
17. Gibbard, "Contingent Identity"
18. Holton, "Dispositions All The Way Round"
19. Humberstone, "Intrinsic/Extrinsic"
20. Johnston, "Constitution is Not Identity"
21. Kim, "Psychophysical Supervenience"
22. Kripke, "Identity and Necessity"
23. Kripke, Naming and Necessity, excerpts
24. Langton, excerpts from Kantian Humility
25. Lewis, "Counterparts of Persons and Their Bodies"
26. Lewis, "Extrinsic Properties"
27. Lewis, "Natural and Intrinsic," from Plurality of Worlds
28. Lewis & Langton, "Defining 'Intrinsic'"
29. Price, "Universals and Resemblance"
30. Rea, "Constitution and Kind-Membership"
31. Rea, "The Problem of Material Constitution"
32. Shoemaker, "Causality and Properties"
33. Shoemaker, "Realization and Mental Causation"
34. Sider, "Intrinsic Properties"
35. Smith & Stoljar, "Global Response Dependence and Noumenal Realism"
36. Stalnaker, "Counterparts and Identity"
37. Thomson, "Statue and Clay"
38. Van Inwagen, "Modal Epistemology"
39. Yablo, "Cause and Essence"
40. Yablo, "Essentialism"
41. Yablo, "Identity, Essence, and Indiscernibility"
42. Yablo, "Is Conceivability a Guide to Possibility?"
43. Yablo, "Intrinsicness"
44. Yablo, "Textbook Kripkeanism"
45. Yablo, "The Real Distinction Between Mind and Body"