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Edward Jonathan Lowe (; 24 March 1950 – 5 January 2014), usually cited as E. J. Lowe but known personally as Jonathan Lowe, was a British
philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and academic. He was Professor of Philosophy at
Durham University Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament (UK), Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by r ...
. He defended non- Cartesian
dualism Dualism most commonly refers to: * Mind–body dualism, a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, or that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another * P ...
.


Biography

Lowe was born in
Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...
, England. His secondary education was at Bushey Grammar School, and he subsequently studied at the
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
, 1968–72 (BA in History, 1st Class), and the
University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...
, 1972–75 (BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy). Lowe had two children; his daughter is the political philosopher Rebecca Lowe.


Philosophy

Lowe was one of the leading philosophers of his generation. He researched and published on a vast array of topics including:
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...
,
philosophy of mind Philosophy of mind is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of the mind and its relation to the Body (biology), body and the Reality, external world. The mind–body problem is a paradigmatic issue in philosophy of mind, although a ...
,
philosophical logic Understood in a narrow sense, philosophical logic is the area of logic that studies the application of logical methods to philosophical problems, often in the form of extended logical systems like modal logic. Some theorists conceive philosophic ...
, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, and the history of early modern philosophy. He supervised many PhD students, working on a wide variety of topics. He made notable contributions to developing thought on ontology, essences, dualistic interactionism, and Locke studies. For Lowe, ontology comes in two parts: ''a priori'' and empirical. The ''a priori'' aspect deals in the possible ways reality could exists. The empirical aspect informs and establish what kinds of things ''do'' exists. Thus, to grasp what is actual in the world you must also ascertain was it possible. At the heart of his ontological world is a four-category ontology which consist of objects, kinds, attributes, and modes. Key to his neo-Aristotelianism is a commitment to essences. He espouses general essences and individual essences. The view follows in the Aristotelian tradition that an essence is ‘what it is’ to be a substance. His work on Locke offers a charitable reading of the philosopher, and defends Locke's relevance to philosophy today.


The four-category ontology

Lowe's four-category ontology takes inspiration from
Aristotle Aristotle (; 384–322 BC) was an Ancient Greek philosophy, Ancient Greek philosopher and polymath. His writings cover a broad range of subjects spanning the natural sciences, philosophy, linguistics, economics, politics, psychology, a ...
's ''Categories.'' His terminology emerges from the distinction that Aristotle made between ‘being said of’ and ‘being in’ a subject: primary substances, secondary substances, attributes, and modes. Primary substances are neither said of nor are in a subject. Secondary are said of a subject, not being in. His own addition is to label the final two categories, attributes and modes. Attributes are both said of and are in, while modes are not said of a subject, but are in. Attributes and modes are his own additions to Aristotle's language. Rather than ‘being said of’ or ‘being in,’ Lowe introduces two distinctions: substantial and non-substantial; universals and particulars. Thus, there are substantial particulars (objects), substantial universals (kinds), non-substantial universals (attributes), and non-substantial particulars (modes). He argues that the distinction between kinds and modes are similar to the kind of distinction made between sortal and adjectival terms.
The former denotes ''kinds'' of object, while the latter denotes ''properties'' of objects. Individual objects are particular instances of kinds, while the modes of individual objects are particular instances of properties.
The categories and their relations are laid out in the 'ontological square.' Lowe argues that his view has an advantage over other ontologies of
universals In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For exa ...
like that of David Armstrong. That is, it does not need to rely on appeals to second-order relations. Consider the law-statement, ‘Planets move in elliptical orbits.’ Lowe claims, according to a theory like Armstrong's, a second-order necessitation relation obtains between the first-order properties: being a planet and moving in an elliptical orbit. Instead, the four-category ontology would state that the law amounts to the attribute, moving in an elliptical orbit, characterizing the kind, planet. A further advantage is in the accounts ability to distinguish between dispositional and occurrent states of objects. For example, the distinction between an object being soluble and its actually dissolving. Where counterfactuals need a covering claim, “all things being equal,” the four-category ontology can capture the dispositions through kinds and objects.
An object possesses a ''disposition'' to ''F'' just in case it instantiates a kind which is characterized by the property of being ''F''. Thus, for example, an object ''O'' has a disposition to be dissolved by water just in case ''O'' instantiates a kind, ''K'', such that the law obtains that water dissolves ''K.''
The modes and attributes capture the object actually dissolving by their relation to the universal of the object. For Lowe, modes are features of an object, not constituent of it. Here, modes are particular ways an object is. Thus, an object may exemplify attributes dispositionally or occurrently. It exemplifies attributes dispositionally if the object instantiates the kind which is characterized by the attribute. It exemplifies attribute occurrently if the object is characterized by a mode which instantiates the attribute.


Essences

A central aspect of Lowe’s metaphysics is his view of essences. Put simply, essences are ‘what it is’ to be that object. Each object has two kinds of essences: general essences and individual essences. General essences are ‘what it is’ to be that object, and is shared by all the particulars of that object. Individual essences capture ‘what it is’ to be a particular object as opposed to some other. For Lowe, essences are not some particular thing you need to find. For example, H2O as the essence of water. Rather, you simply need to ‘grasp’ what it is to be that substance. The bar he uses for grasping an essence is obtaining an “adequate conception” of it.


Non-Cartesian dualism

Lowe defended non-Cartesian dualism. Non-Cartesian substance dualism (NCSD) is a type of dualism of persons and their organized bodies, wherein persons though distinct from their organized bodies are bearers of both mental properties and certain physical properties.Lowe, E. J. (2010). ''Substance Dualism: A Non-Cartesian Approach''. In Robert C. Koons. ''The Waning of Materialism''. pp. 439-462. Lowe defined non-Cartesian substance dualism as:


Death

Lowe died after several months of illness on 5th January 2014.


Selected publications

* ''Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms'' (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989) * '' Locke on Human Understanding'' (London: Routledge, 1995) * '' Subjects of Experience'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) * '' The Possibility of Metaphysics'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) * '' An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) * '' A Survey of Metaphysics'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) * ''Locke'' (London, New York: Routledge: 2005) * ''The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) * '' Personal Agency'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) * ''More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms'' (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) * ''Forms of Thought: A Study in Philosophical Logic'' (Cambridge University Press, 2013) He also published over 200 articles, including in the leading journals in the field, such as ''
The Journal of Philosophy ''The Journal of Philosophy'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy, founded in 1904 at Columbia University. Its stated purpose is "To publish philosophical articles of current interest and encourage the interchange of ideas, es ...
'', ''
Mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...
'', and ''
Noûs ''Noûs'' is a quarterly Peer review, peer-reviewed academic journal on philosophy published by Wiley-Blackwell. It was established in 1967 by Hector-Neri Castañeda and is currently edited by Ernest Sosa (Rutgers University). The journal is acc ...
''.


References


External links


E.J. Lowe
, article in the
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy The ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' (''IEP'') is a scholarly online encyclopedia with around 900 articles about philosophy, philosophers, and related topics. The IEP publishes only peer review, peer-reviewed and blind-refereed original p ...
by J.T.M. Miller outlining central parts of Lowe's philosophy, especially his metaphysics, ontology, and philosophy of mind.
"Metaphysical foundations for science,"
interviewed by Richard Marshall (originally for 3:AM Magazine, 18 March 2013).
Recent Advances in Metaphysics
, Lowe's keynote address, about his four-category ontology, at th
International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information systems
17-19 October 2001, Ogunquit, Maine. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lowe, Jonathan 1950 births 2014 deaths 21st-century British philosophers Academics of Durham University Alumni of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge Alumni of St Edmund Hall, Oxford British logicians British metaphysicians British philosophers of mind Dualists People from Dover, Kent Scholars of modern philosophy