Metodo

International Studies in Phenomenology and Philosophy

Journal | Volume | Article

168272

Making sense of negative properties

David Hommen

pp. 81-106

Abstract

Few philosophers believe in the existence of so-called negative properties. Indeed, many find it mind-boggling just to imagine such entities. By contrast, I believe not only that negative properties are quite conceivable, but also that there are good reasons for thinking that some such properties actually exist. In this paper, I would like to explicate a concept of negative properties which I think avoids the logical absurdities commonly believed to frustrate theories of negative existences. To do this, I shall deploy a conceptual approach to ontology: I first evaluate the ontological commitments of ordinary negative statements, before I argue that, from the perspective of conceptual analysis, negative properties are no more suspicious than positive properties. In the second part of this paper, I probe the extent to which one can explain the distinction between positive and negative properties in terms of facts about logico-semantical entailment.

Publication details

Published in:

(2018) Axiomathes 28 (1).

Pages: 81-106

DOI: 10.1007/s10516-017-9337-3

Full citation:

Hommen David (2018) „Making sense of negative properties“. Axiomathes 28 (1), 81–106.