Thomistic Moderate Realism Reduces to Armstrongianism or Platonism

I've always had difficulty understanding Aquinas's "moderate realist" view on universals, at least as that view is expounded by his interpreters. It seems that they want to have their cake and eat it too: Thomists both believes that universals are "objective" and "extramental" in some sense. But they also are not extreme realists, i.e., (modern) Platonists. They also seem to say things that make it sound as if universals are merely conceptions; if taken at face value, that reduces to conceptualism or nominalism of some sort.

Here's one way of bringing out the problem.

Assuming there are universals, then:

• 1. Either (a) universals exist extramentally or (b) they do not exist extramentally.
• 2. If (b), then nominalism or conceptualism, QED.
• 3. If (a), then either (i) they only exist in the objects that have them, or (ii) they sometimes exist outside of the objects that have them.
• 4. If (i), then that is Armstrong's view.
• 5. If (ii) then that is Platonism.
• 6. So if (a) is true, then either Armstrong's view or Platonism is true, and so moderate realism either reduces to Armstrong's view or Platonism.

6 already seems to disambiguate the Thomistic view in a way that makes it unacceptable, and does not let it have all of the desirable qualities it is supposed to have.

• 7. If Armstrong's view holds, then universals depend on the objects that have them, and therefore cease to exist if the objects do.
• 8. But if the universals cease to exist, then statements about non-existent things, like "dinosaurs are big creatures", do not require universals to be true, and so universals are superfluous.
• 9. So if Armstrong's view holds, then universals are superfluous.

That only leaves Platonism, and there are huge problems with Platonism.

To be fair, I am leaving much unsaid here, and I am not making any distinctions within "Platonism." But ultimately I think this is basically correct; the way Platonism is construed in modern times basically just is the view that there are non-mental, objective, necessarily existent, universals.

Review: 'An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics' by James Franklin

I recently finished reading James Franklin's marvelous book, An Aristotelian Realist Philosophy of Mathematics, and I want to advertise it here. This is a great book. It is empirically informed by a wide knowledge of both actual mathematical practice and contemporary mathematics itself, along with other relevant areas of study such as perceptual psychology, neuroscience, and engineering. It also engages with much of the cutting edge in contemporary philosophy of mathematics, especially in the later chapters. This is some of the best of what Aristotelianism has to offer. I really hope people will read it.

Franklin aims to give an account of mathematics as the science of quantity and of structure. Franklin gives particularly clear definitions of both quantity and structure--something often lacking among contemporary structuralists in my opinion--and this in itself is a very important advance. According to his account, mathematics studies structural universals and quantities. These universals and quantities are the type of thing that can be found in the real world and can be literally had by concrete objects. Of course, not all mathematical structures are had by some concrete object, but it is essential to his account that they could be, i.e. that they are metaphysically possible.

While quantity seems to me to play a less central part in his project, his clear account of structure allows him to take his views a long way. Franklin understands a property to be purely structural just in case it can be defined completely in terms of 'part', 'whole', 'same', 'different', and purely logical vocabulary. The relations of 'part' and 'whole' will probably come into play in geometry, as well as set theory, graph theory, topology, analysis, etc. So, for instance, on this definition, the property of being a Euclidean space could probably be defined purely structurally; see for instance Hilbert's axioms. Also, the Peano axioms seem to describe purely structural relations, since they only invoke logical vocabulary and identity (other than the names for the relations being defined, of course). Franklin gives many more examples, so I refer the reader to his book for a treatment of further cases.

Franklin contrasts his approach with Platonism and nominalism in contemporary philosophy of mathematics. Unlike Platonism, the universals studied by mathematics can be literally instantiated by concrete things in the real world. What mathematics does is study these possibly instantiated structures. Mathematics does not study abstract, particular individuals. Number systems, for instance, would not be cashed out as consisting of abstract individuals (numbers), but as either systems of quantities or as structures which can be instantiated by concrete things. (Franklin's account of number, in fact, cashes out numbers as being relations which are literally instantiated in the world by material heaps and 'unit-making' universals.)

Against nominalism on the other hand, Franklin assumes that there are, in fact, mathematical universals that can be literally shared by different things. Again, Franklin also assumes that there are, in addition to those universals instantiated in the real world, universals which are not instantiated but are at least possibly instantiated.

By his choice of example he shows how contemporary philosophers of mathematics often miss the most central cases of mathematics. Contemporary philosophy of mathematics often has a Platonist bias, focusing on those cases that are less essential for use in real world applications (such as huge sets, large infinities, etc.). This is to the detriment of the most central and basic cases, which are the simple, often discrete and finite structures widely used in real-world applied sciences, and which are less amenable to Platonist interpretation.

He gives a far more plausible account of mathematical knowledge and empirical mathematical application than that offered by most Platonists. He also argues that contemporary philosophy of mathematics tends to not pay enough to attention to how mathematics is actually done, and therefore misses those aspects of mathematical practice that make more sense on an Aristotelian view. He shows a much closer parallel between actual mathematical practice and actual empirical scientific practice than is often recognized (for instance, by the unquestionable use of induction, plausible reasoning, and explanation in mathematics; he rightly notes that (in)formal proof is often only the last step in the equation). Franklin goes on to apply the Aristotelian conception of mathematics to many other philosophical issues, such as mathematical necessity, infinity, approximation, and ontology.

With that said, there are several parts of the theory that could be potentially problematic and call for more investigation. Just to shotgun a few of them out:

• The reliance on a classical mereology of heaps and arbitrary sums (this is important for his definitions of whole numbers and sets).
• The reliance on (immanent) universals, problematic from a trope nominalist perspective such as my own, and which might use a bit more explanation.
• The commitment to uninstantiated universals (an idea classically denied by most Aristotelians, including Aristotle himself, and one which moves Franklin's account toward a "semi-Platonism" as he calls it).
• His commitment to all mathematical structures being metaphysically possible (this is interesting to me; I bet Franklin's account could be seamlessly extended given a proper account of impossibility, impossible objects, impossible universals, and impossible worlds, and I bet this isn't essential to his view).
• Giving a general, unified semantics for mathematical language (it's less than clear from the book how this is to be done; for instance, with the complex and negative numbers, Franklin gives what appear to be examples, or maybe geometrical/economical interpretations. But what would he say are the straight up truth-conditions for, say, -2 + 3i = 2(-1 + 3/2i)? Or (-2)(-3) = 6? Or of more general laws governing number systems?).
• Showing more precisely and in individual cases how a more wide range of mathematical concepts are definable either purely structurally or quantitatively (ideally, it'd be nice if we could get to the point of giving a general paraphrase scheme or a general procedure--Franklin's account of set theory being purely structural is suggestive, so maybe we could show how any set-theoretical entity or relation could be defined structurally, and thereby show all mathematics to be interpretable structurally; either this or the last question I hope to work on for my term paper this semester).
• The apparently ad hoc fictionalist account of zero and the empty set combined with a realist account of everything else (I can see fictionalists asking why we need the realistic ontology in some cases but not others).
• Related to this last point, some unclarity/implausibility in the theory of ontology and ontological commitment at play, as well as some unclarity about the ontological status of mathematics (if it were made more clear when or why we are committed to some things but not others, and in what way, it'd probably be easier to answer questions such as the last one).

I don't have enough time to spell all these worries out, though if anyone is curious I can explain what I mean, and maybe after reading the book some of these worries will be clear. And I don't think these are damning or insuperable criticisms either; I think they are problems to be investigated, but Franklin's account seems to me to be certainly on the right track.

One last potential criticism that I feel kind of bad about making: I feel like the book doesn't really engage much with what's been said in contemporary neo-Aristotelian metaphysics and ontology. I feel bad about saying that because of the huge swaths of literature the book does, in fact, engage with (the number of works referenced is amazing; one wonders how somebody can read so much). But in certain respects (the mereology for instance, or the role of states of affairs), it seems like the book draws on some concepts with which many current Aristotelians might take issue. And like I said, the book's understanding of ontological commitment could have been a bit more clear; here, engagement with contemporary Aristotelian metaphysics (among others) might have been helpful as well.

Overall though this is an excellent book, and maybe even a game-changer, at least for me. It contains many more interesting ideas and arguments to grapple with than I've been able to discuss here. Whether one buys into it or not, Franklin admirably demonstrates the fruits of an Aristotelian approach, at least on one understanding of that term. He makes use of a wide variety of examples, from a wide variety of real world sciences (including, but very much not limited to, pure mathematics). By doing this he demonstrates how important it is to pay attention to actual empirical results and practice when doing any sort of metaphysical or epistemological investigation into the philosophical status of mathematics. And this seems to me to be one of the most important marks of the general Aristotelian attitude.

Essence and Counterpossibles

In my last post I made the point that the predicate position in real definitions is hyperintensional. So, even if two predicates have the same intension, i.e. necessarily apply to all the same things, they might not be able to be substituted for each other in the real definition while preserving truth value. This means that, among the necessary properties of a thing, we have to distinguish those which are essential to the thing from those which are not.

Maybe one way to do this is by using counterfactuals with impossible antecedents, also known as counterpossibles. 

The general idea is this. Counterpossibles, according to a certain semantics, are also hyperintensional. You can insert intensionally equivalent antecedents into the same counterfactual, but only some of these counterfactuals will be true while others will be false. So maybe we can use a particular counterpossible schema (as we will see, that in (1*)) to discriminate between properties that are essential and those that are non-essential. 

More specifically, we can take two intensionally equivalent properties F and G, insert F into the antecedent, insert G into the antecedent, and the counterfactual may have a different truth value depending on which of F or G is substituted. Thus, the essential vs. non-essential distinction will be able to be defined in terms of the truth or falsity of instances of a certain counterfactual schema. To make the point more vivid, the counterfactual schema will be like a box we can insert intensionally equivalent properties such as F or G into. If we put in G for instance and the box outputs TRUE then G is essential; if it outputs FALSE then G is not essential. Since counterpossibles are hyperintensional, the 'box' won't always give the same output for properties with the same intension.

So: Consider two intensionally equivalent properties F and G. This means that, necessarily, if anything has F in a world then it also has G in the same world, and vice versa. If F and G are intensionally equivalent then the properties λz[□Fz] and λz[□Gz] are also intensionally equivalent, and thus the formulas λz[□Fz](x) and λz[□Gz](x) are intensionally equivalent. Now, consider a counterfactual of the form:

• (C) If φ had been the case then A.

Since we are going with an interpretation allowing for non-trivially true counterpossibles, we can substitute in for φ either of two necessarily false propositions, P or Q, but it won't automatically follow that (C) will come out true under both substitutions.

So suppose it is true that a is necessarily F and necessarily G.

Let P be '¬λz[□Fz](a)', let Q be '¬λz[□Gz](a)' and let A be '¬λz[∃yy=z](a)'.

Again, it doesn't follow automatically from the semantics of counterpossibles that substituting P in for φ will give you the same truth value as substituting Q for φ, despite the fact that these two formulas are intensionally equivalent. What we can do then to distinguish whether F is essential or G is essential (or neither) is substitute in P for φ and Q for φ in (C). If (C) comes out true, then the property is essential; if it comes out false, then it is not.

With this hypothesis in mind, here is a very rough first stab. For any x:

• (1) For any P, if P is a de re necessary property of x, then P is an essential property of x if and only if had x lacked P then x would not exist.

More formally, let |x| be λz[z=x]: 

• (1*) For any P: If λz[□Pz](x) then: □|x|Px iff (¬λz[Pz](x) □→¬λz[∃yy=z](x)])

Again, keep in mind that the counterfactuals here are to have a semantics where they can be read as non-trivially true counterpossibles, and thus not according to the standard Lewis-Stalnaker semantics. Also, the 'essentialist box', □F, comes from Kit Fine's 'Logic of Essence'. Roughly, □FA means that in virtue of the essence of the F's, A holds. So if |x| is the property of being identical to x, then □|x|Px turns out to mean that in virtue of the essence of x P holds of x. Fine parses out the logic this way for its semantical and logical elegance.

Consider one example given by Kit Fine: Suppose we have the property λz[z∈{z}]. Intuitively, this is the property satisfied by something whenever it is in its singleton. Assuming that, necessarily, I am a member of my singleton, then this is a de re necessary property of me, i.e. λz[□z∈{z}](a) However, it seems to not be an essential property of me.

So, is it true that the following holds?

• (A) Had Alfredo lacked λz[z∈{z}], Alfredo would not exist.
• (A*) ¬λz[z∈{z}](a) □→ ¬λz[∃yy=z](a)

It seems that (A) does not hold. For it's irrelevant to my nature whether there are any abstract objects, such as sets, at all. After all, it seems that if nominalism were true, I would still exist. This lends some weight toward thinking that, if I had lacked λz[z∈{z}], I would still exist. But then by the criterion in (1), since the counterpossible does not hold for the property λz[z∈{z}], it must follow that λz[z∈{z}] is not essential to me. 

Given a de re necessary property of x, P, it might also be that the truth of the appropriate counterpossible is just a necessary condition for a property's being essential. In other words:

• (NEC) If P is essential to x, then were x to lack P x would not exist. 
• (NEC*) If □|x|Px, then (¬λz[Pz](x) □→¬λz[∃yy=z](x)]).

Or it might be a sufficient condition as well, i.e.:

• (SUFF) Given that if x were to lack P x would not exist, then P is essential to x.
• (SUFF*) If (¬λz[Pz](x) □→¬λz[∃yy=z](x)]), then □|x|Px.

Keeping in mind of course the sense of the term 'essence' in mind, and the relevant semantics for counterpossibles, (NEC) seems definitely true, and probably uncontentious. I suppose the interesting question is whether (SUFF) is true. I think the examples lend some support to the idea, such as the case of the singleton set given above.

In the case of (SUFF) it is particularly important that we use the right semantics for counterpossibles. If (SUFF) is true then this is very useful when talking to those who don't recognize the sense of essence at stake here: If they already know how to evaluate the counterpossible in the antecedent according to a 'non-trivial' semantics, then we simply say, "Plug in the property for the antecedent; if the counterfactual holds non-trivially, the property is essential. Now you know what I mean." This might also be a nice way to interpret people who give multiple definitions of 'essential' and 'accidental' properties, such as Aristotle. Aristotle gives a modal definition of essential properties which can sound like it might contradict other definitions of his; but (1) is 'modal' too, and it might be a way to interpret Aristotle that makes him consistent.

Probably potential counter-examples to the hypothesis come to mind. I know that I already see some issues. But it might be useful to see how far this hypothesis can go. And maybe if the hypothesis doesn't hold in general (I bet it doesn't) it might at least help us pick out an important class of the essential properties. After all, it seems in part that the reason we recognize λz[z∈{z}] as non-essential to me is because in some (non-trivial) sense had I lacked it λz[z∈{z}] I would still exist. Had nominalism been true, I'd have still been real (save if you're a Platonist/Pythagorean of a certain sort, in which case maybe you'd have good, non-trivial reason to deny that the counterfactual holds).

It might seem overly complicated to do this quasi-formally as I have, but one thing I'd like to do is look more at the formal semantics of essence such as Fine's for instance (hence the essentialist 'box' operator from Fine's papers), and see how this relates to the formal semantics of counterpossibles (whatever that happens to be). Given the inter-dependence of the two notions, maybe the correct semantics for counterpossibles will help us find the correct semantics for essence, and vice versa. Maybe the notion of essence will help us give a more principled similarity metric for counterpossibles in certain contexts. Also, maybe the notions of essence and counterpossible will relate closely to other notions, such as grounding, dependence and explanation. It might be an interesting project to see how far formal methods can help us here in finding relations between these concepts.

Essence and Hyperintensionality

The essence of something is the truthmaker of the real definition of the thing. So, to know what the essence of something is is to know its real definition. For instance, to know the essence of man is to know the proposition that man is a rational animal. This is traditionally thought to be the real definition of 'man'.

Here is the general schema for a real definition:

• S ise an F.

'S' is replaced by some kind-term (or maybe even individual-term?), the thing to be defined, and 'F' with some predicate, the definiens. The 'is' here is a special kind of 'is': the 'is' of real definition or essence. The conditions that have to be met for something to bee F are much more strict than for something to be F in other senses of 'be' (such as the more general sense of 'is', the 'is' of predication).

(Side-note: In some contexts is this a schema for reduction too? Interesting...)

Real definitions are 'fine-grained'. You cannot always substitute extensional equivalents into the predicate position to get the same truth value. For instance, suppose all and only the actually existing rational animals are animals which evolved by a certain evolutionary process P on earth. Even if this so, the following is not true:

• Man ise an animal which evolved by process P on earth.

After all, man could have evolved in some other way, or even not at all. Man could have randomly popped into existence. So it's certainly not part of the very definition of man that he evolved by a certain evolutionary process.

So real definitions are fine-grained. In fact, real definitions are very fine-grained; you cannot even substitute intensional equivalents into the predicate position and always retain the same truth value. Suppose for instance that, necessarily, any animal which is rational is the type of thing which can speak a language. This actually seems pretty plausible. (If not, think of some other necessary consequence of being rational. You could even use some fancy disjunctive, conjunctive, or conditional properties, though I try to avoid these.) Even if this is so, the following is not true:

• Man ise an language-capable animal.

At least, it's not true when we're talking about the 'is' of real definition. For this doesn't get to the heart of what man is; it's not what he is at the most fundamental level, but rather something he happens to be.

So, the predicate position in real definitions is a hyperintensional position, in the sense that substitution of intensional equivalents will not always preserve the same truth value. I take it these points cohere well with what has been said about real definition and essence up to now by others, such as Fine.

In the next post, I'll try to say something about how the hyperintensionality in real definitions means that counterpossibles will be very closely related to real definitions. Maybe this will help, at least a little, with the epistemology of essence.

Lately I have been suspecting that hyperintensionality, counterpossibles, essence, explanation, grounding, reduction, fundamentality, naturalness, intrinsicality, and lots of other things are very closely related. In the future I'd like to try to bring out some of these relationships. I'm not sure how successful this will be, but my metaphysical nose is leading me in this direction.

Essence and Ontological Dependence

This is my term paper from my independent study last quarter on ontological dependence. I will say beforehand that I did not have enough time to make it great, and there is a lot more I could have said. However, I believe it contains a relatively good summary of Kit Fine's position, and I think the stuff toward the end about causation is somewhat original (albeit sketchy). So hopefully someone will find it interesting and useful.

I.  Introduction – Examples and What We Want

In many areas of philosophy, as well as common discourse, it is normal to say that one thing depends on another. Moreoever, one of these uses of the word 'depends' is a distinctly ontological sense, as opposed to, say, a notion of epistemological dependence or logical dependence. I will use the term 'dependence' throughout this essay to stand for this particularly ontological notion, unless otherwise stated. So for instance, we might say that a composite depends on its constituents. Or we might say a smile depends on the mouth of which it is a smile. Or that a hole depends on the thing which it is a hole in. This is a philosophical datum and the only reason one would deny it or feign incomprehension seems to be hard-headedness.