Sortals

Substance Sortals - a persisting entity whenever it exists.

Phase Sortals - an entity when it has certain properties, e.g. a caterpillar and a teenager are phases for a particular entity.


Via: Partfit, D. (2012). We Are Not Human Beings. Philosophy, the Journal of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, volume 87, number 339, January 2012

Epistemic and Pragmatic Actions

A handy terminological distinction...


Epistemic Actions alter the world so as to aid and augment cognitive processes such as recognition and search. Examples include leaving things by your door that you want to remember to take with you, entering information into a calendar, and tagging blog posts.


Pragmatic Actions are those actions that alter the world because some physical change is desirable for its own sake. Examples include turning the heating on because it is cold, and shutting the door to enclose a space.


This came to me via Clark and Chalmers (1998) The Extended Mind. They got it via Kirsh and Maglio (1994) On Distinguishing Epistemic from Pragmatic Action (which I've not yet read).