ABSTRACT
This chapter is a largely personal reflection on Jonathan Lowe’s Four-Category Ontology. It begins with an attempt to explicate the nature of universals, powers, and natural necessity, and the relations (or ‘relationships’) between entities in each of the four categories. After exploring a number of apparent difficulties with the ontology – notable especially in light of his more recent work on relations and essences – the chapter advances the hypothesis that Lowe’s ideas were evolving in surprising ways subsequent to the publication of The Four-Category Ontology in 2006.
