Extended Simples and Qualitative Heterogeneity

Bibliographic Data

ID4352189
AuthorsKris Mcdaniel (0000-0002-2339-2460, Syracuse University, corresponding author)
Year2009
Volume59
Issue235
Pages325-331
Publication date2009-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Philosophical Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8094 • E-ISSN: 1467-9213
PublisherOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9213.2008.589.x
OpenAlexW2126186276
LanguageEN
Citations received11

The problem of qualitative heterogeneity is to explain how an extended simple can enjoy qualitative variation across its spatial or temporal axes, given that it lacks both spatial and temporal parts. I discuss how friends of extended simples should address the problem of qualitative heterogeneity. I present a series of arguments designed to show that rather than appealing to fundamental distributional properties one should appeal to tiny and short‐lived tropes. Along the way, issues relevant to debates about material composition, persistence over time and existence monism are discussed

Appeal · Epistemology · Mathematical economics · Monism · Persistence (discontinuity) · Physics · Political science · Qualitative research · Simple (philosophy) · Social science · Sociology · Variation (astronomy) · Computer Science · Geology · Mathematics · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science