Coming down from the trees

metaphysics and the history of classification

David Kolb

pp. 161-183

in: Continental Philosophy Review 35 (2), 2002.

Abstract

Three kinds of concepts can be distinguished in Plato and Aristotle, empirical genera and species, "transcendental" concepts such as being and unity, and polarized "meanings of being" such as power and actuality. Both Kant and Hegel break with the traditional dominance of polarized meanings of being, but they do so in different ways which are at work as competing trends inside both Continental and analytic philosophy today.