Are All Primitives Created Equal?

Miller, J.T.M.

doi:10.1111/sjp.12279

Are All Primitives Created Equal?

Miller, J.T.M.

Authors

Dr James Miller james.miller@durham.ac.uk
Assistant Professor

Abstract

Primitives are both important and unavoidable, and which set of primitives we endorse will greatly shape our theories and how those theories provide solutions to the problems that we take to be important. After introducing the notion of a primitive posit, I discuss the different kinds of primitives that we might posit. Following Cowling (2013), I distinguish between ontological and ideological primitives, and, following Benovsky (2013), between functional and content views of primitives. I then propose that these two distinctions cut across each other leading to four types of primitive posits. I then argue that theoretical virtues should be taken to be metatheoretical ideological primitives. I close with some reflections on the global nature of comparing sets of primitives.

Citation

Miller, J. (2018). Are All Primitives Created Equal?. The Southern Journal of Philosophy, 56(2), 273-292. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12279

Journal Article Type	Article
Online Publication Date	Jun 5, 2018
Publication Date	2018-06
Deposit Date	Jul 29, 2020
Publicly Available Date	Jul 30, 2020
Journal	The Southern Journal of Philosophy
Print ISSN	0038-4283
Publisher	Wiley
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	56
Issue	2
Pages	273-292
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12279

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Copyright Statement
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Miller, J. T. M. (2018). Are All Primitives Created Equal? The Southern Journal of Philosophy 56(2): 273-292 which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/sjp.12279. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.