What are properties?

Answer 1

A property in philosophy is the quality or feature that any object possesses. For example, in the sentence, "This apple is red", the red color or redness is the property of the apple. An object usually possesses more than one quality. An apple has the property of shape (roundness), weight, among others. besides the property of color.

What is problematic about properties is the controversy among philosophers as to whether those properties, also known as universals, exist within or outside the objects they exemplify.

At this point, Plato views that the universals (Forms) are real and that they are distinct from their objects, They are also outside the mind. Aristotle, on the other hand, states the universals are not distinct from the objects, instead they are within the objects, An apple, for instance, would not exist without the qualities it possesses such as color, shape, weight, taste etc.

Although Plato and Aristotle differ in the way they view properties, they both agree on that properties are real and that they exist independently of the mind. In this regard, Plato and Aristotle are known as realists. Conceptualists, however, believe that the universals exist only as concepts in the mind. Conceptualists such as John Lock, Ockham, Kant, among others, agree that universals exist outside the mind but only as concepts abstracted from real objects. Conceptualists are regarded as an intermediary between realists (Plato and Aristotle), who state that the universals are real, and nominalists who are another group of philosophers who consider universals are simply empty words and ideas we mentally construct that do not at all exist in reality..

This debate among realists, nominalists and conceptualists about the universals (properties) is ongoing to the present.