This should be fun.

Issue on Ordinary Objects: October 2005

Editor: Barry Smith (University at Buffalo)
Advisory Editor: L. A. Paul (University of Arizona & ANU)

Ordinary objects such as apples, statues and cats can be understood philosophically in different ways: as bundles of properties, as Aristotelian substances, as substrates having attributes, or as hunks of matter. There are familiar puzzles associated with each of these alternative conceptions. Consider: Is my apple identical to the matter it is made of? My apple could not, after all, survive being squashed, yet its matter could. This difference in modal properties suggests that the apple and its matter are not identical. Some have suggested that the matter constitutes, but is not identical to, the apple. But what, then, is the apple? If it is merely a bundle of properties, does it have all its properties essentially? And if so, then how does this square with the common-sense opinion that the apple could have had a slightly different color or shape? And if the apple is a bundle of properties or a substrate that has properties, then are these properties themselves universals, or tropes, or something else? Perhaps we must find out what concept my apple falls under before these questions can be answered. But would then our concept of the apple determine what the apple is? Or would the apple still exist independently of whatever concepts we apply to it?

Papers are invited on the metaphysics of objects which provide an analysis of what objects such as apples, statues and cats are in a way which will yield solutions to problems of these sorts, including problems concerning material constitution, the identity of indiscernibles, essentialism, and the role of ordinary objects in cognition.

Contributors will include Michael Ayers, John Hawthorne, Mark Heller and E.J. Lowe.

Deadline for submissions: October 31, 2004.
Submissions should be emailed to L.A. Paul at arizona dot edu or mailed to L.A. Paul, Department of Philosophy, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721.

If I’m not too lazy I might send the growing individuals paper in. It’s all about ordinary things. Or at least if it’s right it is.