Logical Studies

Quine and Aristotelian Essentialism

Document Type : Translation & Critic

Author

Ata Hashemi

 M.A Student in Philosophy, Allameh Tabatabaii University

Abstract
Quine, the famous American empiricist philosopher, in wake of his criticisms of quantified modal logic, believes that the logic is committed to a doctrine which he calls Aristotelian Essentialism, and tries to prove that the doctrine is meaningless. He defines Aristotelian Essentialism as a doctrine which distinguishes between things’ essential and accidental properties, and the distinction is independent from the language in which the things are referred to, and also the ways by which they are specified. In the present paper, based on Aristotle's works, I have tried to find out whether Quine has defined the Aristotelian essentialism correctly, and whether his criticisms of essentialism include what Aristotle means by essentialism or not? I have argued that Quine has not analyzed Aristotelian essentialism correctly.
Keywords: Essentialism, Modality, Aristotle, Quine.

Keywords

Keywords: Essentialism
Modality
Aristotle
Quine
 
نوسبام، مارتا (1389). ارسطو، ترجمة عزت‌الله فولادوند، تهران: طرح نو.
 
Aristotle (1963). Aristotle's Works, Trans. W. D. Ross, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Black, Edward (1968). ‘Aristotle's 'Essentialism' and Quine's Cycling Mathematician’, The Monist, Vol. 52, No. 2.
Matthews, Gareth. B. (1990). ‘Aristotelian Essentialism’, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, Vol. 50.
Politis, Vasililis (2005). Aristotle and the Metaphysics, London: Routledge.
Plantinga, Alvin (1974). The Nature of Necessity, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Quine, Wilard Van Orman (1963). From a Logical Point of View, New York: Harber & Row.
Quine, Wilard Van Orman (1976). The Ways of Paradox and Other Essays, New York: Random House.
Quine, Wilard Van Orman (2001). Word and Object, Massachusetts: The MIT.
Rasmussen, Douglas B. (1984). ‘Quine and Aristotle Essentialism’, Reprinted From The New Scholasticism, Vol. 3.
White, Nicholas (1972). ‘Origins of Aristotelian Essentialism’, Review of Metaphysics, Vol. 26.
Logical Studies
Volume 4, Issue 1 - Serial Number 7
March 2013
Pages 129-144

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