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a coupé is a carriage is as empirical (dependent on linguistic codes) as the historical notion that it was used by wealthy people (or, to follow Quine, that on Elm Street there is a certain brick house).
The difference between synthetic and analytic depends upon the point of view from which one determines what is the center and what is the periphery of a global and homogeneous system of cultural notions, on which even our capability of organizing concrete experience depends.
At this point the notion of necessary property becomes one of "necessary under some description" (Chisholm, 1967:6).
Let us consider once again the relevant properties of the three types of carriage I have mentioned, according to a very simplified compositional analysis (where obviously + means the presence of a certain property, - means its absence, and 0 = undetermined) as shown in Figure 8.6. Properties 1 to 6 are undoubtedly relevant in the co-text of Drame, whereas properties 7 and 8 are irrelevant and can be narcotized. But suppose that a coupé is needed by the director of a historical museum of carriages. He wants something that can be precisely distinguished from a brougham (and obviously from an automobile). He looks for properties 3 to 8, especially focusing on properties 7 and 8. What he is not interested in is the ability to move and to contain people: the museum's coupés can have rusty suspensions and damaged spindles. 12
Let us therefore assume that in detecting properties we are interested in those which are essential in respect to the textual topic. We shall thus employ the term 'essential' to indicate those properties which are taken as pertinent in a given universe of discourse. The term 'necessary' will be retained for different purposes (see 8.6.5 and 8.7.2).
8.6. World Structures, Accessibility, Identity
8.6.1. Blowing up (and Narcotizing) Diagnostic Properties as 'Essential'
According to the previous chapter, the essentiality of a property is topic-sensitive. Now, we can say that it is the discursive topic which outlines the world structure W0 as a reduced model of the world of reference,

receptacle

moving
horse- drawn

wheeled
top
roof
2
pass.
4
wheels
front driver
brougham
+
+
+
+
+
0
0
-
hansom
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
+
coupé
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
-
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Figure 8.6

 
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