Qua ‐Talk and Other Forms of Quackery: Part One

The Latin term “qua” is used occasionally in ordinary discourse but more often as a philosophical term of art. Its purpose is sometimes to avoid what would otherwise be contradictions, as in “necessarily two‐legged qua cyclist, contingently two‐legged qua mathematician.” In this paper, I identify and clarify several of the philosophical uses of “qua,” approving some and criticizing others. I discuss the use of “qua” in connection with six different authors: David Lewis, Kit Fine, and Donald Davidson in Part One, and Aristotle, Spinoza, and Kant in Part Two.