Rae Langton and David Lewis have proposed an account of “intrinsic property”that makes use of two notions: being independent of accompaniment and being natural. We find the appeal to the first of these promising; the second notion, however, we find mystifying. In this paper we argue that the appeal to naturalness is not acceptable and offer an alternative definition of intrinsicality. The alternative definition makes crucial use of a notion commonly used by philosophers, namely, the notion of one property being had in virtue of another property. We defend our account against three arguments for thinking that this “in virtue of”notion is unacceptable in this context. We also take a look at a variety of cases in which the definition might be applied and defend it against potential counterexamples. The upshot, we think, is a modest but adequate account of what we understand by “intrinsic property.”
An intrinsic property is one that the bearer has in virtue of the way it is and not in virtue of the way other things are or how they are related to it. This simple formula is normally adequate to convey the notion intended by classifying a property as "intrinsic." In this paper I offer a theory of intrinsicality meant to match the simplicity of this initial characterization. More precisely, the theory will make its link to the above formula evident; if correct, it explains why that formula is normally adequate to convey the notion in question. It will also explain why other characterizations frequently used for the same purpose are suited for doing so, though the theory's connection to the above formula will be the most obvious. The paper is divided into two parts. In the first, I focus on what we may think of as standard "orienting characterizations" that we use to fix ideas-characterizations like the one with which I opened the paper. Such characterizations may seem theory enough; if they succeed in directing us to the notion in question, what more do we want? Here, I explain what more a theory ought to tell us and examine the several characterizations in some detail. That examination provides constraints and motivations that guide the positive proposal here defended.
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