E. J. Lowe (philosopher)

Lowe was born in Dover, England. His secondary education was at Bushey Grammar School, and he subsequently studied at the University of Cambridge, 1968–72 (BA in History, 1st Class), and the University of Oxford, 1972–75 (BPhil and DPhil in Philosophy). Lowe had two children; his daughter is the political philosopher Rebecca Lowe. == Philosophy ==

Lowe was one of the leading philosophers of his generation. He researched and published on a vast array of topics including: metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophical logic, philosophy of language, philosophy of religion, and the history of early modern philosophy. The empirical aspect informs and establish what kinds of things do exist. Thus, to grasp what is actual in the world you must also ascertain was it possible. At the heart of his ontological world is a four-category ontology which consist of objects, kinds, attributes, and modes. Key to his neo-Aristotelianism is a commitment to essences. He espouses general essences and individual essences. The view follows in the Aristotelian tradition that an essence is ‘what it is’ to be a substance. His work on Locke offers a charitable reading of the philosopher, and defends Locke's relevance to philosophy today. The four-category ontology Lowe's four-category ontology takes inspiration from Aristotle's Categories. His terminology emerges from the distinction that Aristotle made between ‘being said of’ and ‘being in’ a subject: primary substances, secondary substances, attributes, and modes. Primary substances are neither said of nor are in a subject. Secondary are said of a subject, not being in. His own addition is to label the final two categories, attributes and modes. Attributes are both said of and are in, while modes are not said of a subject, but are in. Attributes and modes are his own additions to Aristotle's language. Rather than ‘being said of’ or ‘being in,’ Lowe introduces two distinctions: substantial and non-substantial; universals and particulars. Thus, there are substantial particulars (objects), substantial universals (kinds), non-substantial universals (attributes), and non-substantial particulars (modes). He argues that the distinction between kinds and modes are similar to the kind of distinction made between sortal and adjectival terms. The former denotes kinds of object, while the latter denotes properties of objects. Individual objects are particular instances of kinds, while the modes of individual objects are particular instances of properties. Non-Cartesian substance dualism (NCSD) is a type of dualism of persons and their organized bodies, wherein persons though distinct from their organized bodies are bearers of both mental properties and certain physical properties. Lowe defined non-Cartesian substance dualism as: ==Death==

Lowe died after several months of illness on 5 January 2014. == Selected publications ==

• Kinds of Being: A Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms (Oxford: Blackwell, 1989) • Locke on Human Understanding (London: Routledge, 1995) • Subjects of Experience (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996) • The Possibility of Metaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) • An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) • A Survey of Metaphysics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) • Locke (London, New York: Routledge: 2005) • The Four-Category Ontology: A Metaphysical Foundation for Natural Science (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) • Personal Agency (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) • More Kinds of Being: A Further Study of Individuation, Identity and the Logic of Sortal Terms (Wiley-Blackwell, 2009) • Forms of Thought: A Study in Philosophical Logic (Cambridge University Press, 2013) He also published over 200 articles, including in the leading journals in the field, such as The Journal of Philosophy, Mind, and Noûs. == References ==