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This certainly beats most of the other stuff I’ve had sent to me lately. Thank you TRD! And thank you Merrriam-Webster for using my sentence.
“Quiddity” — Word of the Day, September 6th, 2018.
That article, incidentally, which discusses the difference between mezcal and tequila, was part of a monthly series I once wrote for the Coloradoan newspaper.
If you don’t want to deal with their fireworks display of pop-up advertisements, you may read it here on my website.
I always thought that, along with the heartbreaking beauty of distilled spirits, it was one of my better efforts, which I know isn’t saying much.
Nevertheless.
About The Author
Ray Harvey
I was born and raised in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado. I've worked as a short-order cook, construction laborer, crab fisherman, janitor, bartender, pedi-cab driver, copyeditor, and more. I've written and ghostwritten several published books and articles, but no matter where I've gone or what I've done to earn my living, there's always been literature and learning at the core of my life.
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It seems that quiddity bears a family resemblance to Plato’s essential property of an object, that the object must have. There are some concepts that are said to be ‘essentially contested’ such as courage or love. Plato would lead his interlocutors around in circles regarding the essential properties of these concepts. Essential property also displays a family resemblance to polysemy or over-determined concepts or objects, such as a work of art. Following the traditions of the nominalistic who held that types or kinds were not based on Plato’s Ideals, but were simply linguistic conveniences. Wittgenstein also argued that Ideals were not eternal concepts in the mind of God but that the Ideal was an essentially contested concept in itself. . He used the example of the concept ‘game’ asking his readers to determine that concept’s essential property. Deleuze had his own solution.
Edited:
It seems that quiddity bears a family resemblance to Plato’s essential property of an object, that the object must have. There are some concepts that are said to be ‘essentially contested’ such as courage or love. Plato would lead his interlocutors around in circles regarding the essential properties of these concepts. Essential property also displays a family resemblance to polysemy or over-determined concepts or objects, such as a work of art. Following the traditions of the nominalistic who held that types or kinds were not based on Plato’s Ideals, but were simply linguistic conveniences. Wittgenstein also argued that Ideals were not eternal concepts in the mind of God but that the Ideal was an essentially contested concept in itself. . He used the example of the concept ‘game’ asking his readers to determine that concept’s essential property. Deleuze had his own solution.
What a hell of a comment, Doc! Quiddity does bear a family resemblance to essential properties, and yet I confess I thought it was Aristotle who zeroed-in on the essential property or essence of a thing.
One other thing about the word quiddity that is of some interest: it’s rooted in the Latin quid meaning what.
Say what, motherfucker!?
Thank you for dropping by and educating me, as usual, with your erudition and eloquence.