What Kind

Vaisheshika refuses a blur. Kanada sorts what exists into kinds so a word is not asked to do every job. Substance bears the rest. Quality is what it is like. Motion is what it does. Generality is the likeness that lets two fires share a name. Particularity keeps this fire from being that one. Inherence is the tie that lets a quality belong to a substance.

A mistake in kind is a mistake in the world. Call a motion a substance and you look for it in the wrong place. Call a likeness a particular thing and you treat a word as an object you could put in a bag.

The drawer

Someone talks about “speed” as if it were a thing kept in a drawer, next to the cup. When the cup slides across the table, they open the drawer to look for its speed.

Speed is a motion of the cup, not a second object. Ask what kind of thing a word names before you go looking for it.

Try this today Before you weigh an idea, say whether it is a thing, a quality or an action.