Philosophy Quiz ...

For each of the following,
each photographed on a water-stained piece of white paper
on a stool on my back porch,
ask yourself,
What is this?
What is this?''
How does it be what it is (whatever it is)? ?? ?!

Item number 1:


Items 2, 3, and 4:

Low-res detail (modest, 9k):



In fine detail (big file, 230+k):




Items 1 and 2 are fairly easy.
People tend to mistake item 3 (the Philosophy Instruction Device)
for an instance of item number 4.
It is not.

Or they try to call it a giant wooden church-key.
It is not.

How does the Philosophy Instruction Device be what it is?
It bees what it is in more or less the same way as item 4,
but it is not the same as item 4.

That is, it has the same sort of mode-of-being as Item 4,
but it is not the same kind of being.
What is it?
And what is involved in asking how this sort of being bees what it is?