Coinstantiation

Edward MacNeal was pointing out the ubiquity of coinstantiation in daily life when he explained regarding apples and oranges (both literal and proverbial) that "we must feel free to redefine apples and oranges as fruit, missiles, paperweights, or theatrical props as suits our changing needs; then we can observe the rules of addition and have the result make sense."

In other words, the qualitative nature or content of a property determines its logic, which in turn logically determines the properties with which it can be coinstantiated or be compossible. Considered purely logically, the totality of compossibilities of a particular property—the totality of possible coinstantiations with other properties—may be called the logical form of that property. It should also be noted that while the logical form of a property allows for its coinstantiation with a whole host of other properties, it does not allow for coinstantiation with more than one property of a particular type at any one time. Such multiple coinstantiation is excluded as a matter of logic. For instance, and continuing with the preceding example, while the property green may be coinstantiated with the properties soft and hard respectively, it cannot be coinstantiated with each of these at one and the same time because the one logically excludes the other.

A baseball can be a coinstantiation of the concepts of a ball, a piece of sporting goods, a toy, a collectible, and a memento.