Natural Properties, Supervenience, and Mereology

Humana Mente 4 (19):79-104 (2011)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

The interpretation of Lewis‘s doctrine of natural properties is difficult and controversial, especially when it comes to the bearers of natural properties. According to the prevailing reading – the minimalist view – perfectly natural properties pertain to the micro-physical realm and are instantiated by entities without proper parts or point-like. This paper argues that there are reasons internal to a broadly Lewisian kind of metaphysics to think that the minimalist view is fundamentally flawed and that a liberal view, according to which natural properties are instantiated at several or even at all levels of reality, should be preferred. Our argument proceeds by reviewing those core principles of Lewis‘s metaphysics that are most likely to constrain the size of the bearers of natural properties: the principle of Humean supervenience, the principle of recombination in modal realism, the hypothesis of gunk, and the thesis of composition as identity.

Author Profiles

Giorgio Lando
Università degli Studi dell'Aquila
Andrea Borghini
Università degli Studi di Milano

Analytics

Added to PP
2012-07-04

Downloads
448 (#47,951)

6 months
122 (#47,672)

Historical graph of downloads since first upload
This graph includes both downloads from PhilArchive and clicks on external links on PhilPapers.
How can I increase my downloads?