Categories are of explanatory value in metaphysics partly because a category is an essential kind: a kind such that, necessarily, whatever belongs to it belongs to it essentially.
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
However, a nonspatial spirit or soul would be a concrete entity of an atypical sort that lacks spatial or temporal parts.
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
(D1) x is a concrete entity = df. x belongs to an ontological category (at Level C) that has among its possible instances entities having spatial or temporal parts,6 and (D2) x is an abstract entity = df. x is not a concrete entity
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
It is an interesting question when a kind is too specific to count as an ontological category.
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
Subdivisions of the category of substance (at Level D) might include physical object and spirit, subdivisions of boundary might include surface and edge, and so on.
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
Pairs, trios, and quartets of substances of which those substances are parts are collections (within mereology, or the theory of parts, one calls a collection of this kind a mereological sum or fusion).
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
Holes, shadows, and gaps are absences (also known as privations).
Jan Nohat Zitat gemachtletztes Jahr
Surfaces, edges, and corners are boundaries (also known as limits).