If Tropes

In the book If Tropes, the author attempts to approach and then deal with some of the most basic problems for a theory of tropes. The investigation proceeds from three basic assumptions: (i) tropes (i.e. particular properties) exist, (ii) only tropes exis

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SYNTHESE LffiRARY STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

Managing Editor:

JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University, U.S.A. Editors: DIRK VAN DALEN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands DONALD DAVIDSON, University of California, Berkeley, U.S.A.

THEO A.F. KUIPERS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands PATRICK SUPPES, Stanford University, California, U.S.A. JAN WOLENSKI, Jagiellonian University, KrakOw, Poland

VOLUME308

ANNA-SOFIA MAURIN Lund University, Sweden and Viixjo University, Sweden

IF TROPES

SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS :MEDIA, B.V.

A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

ISBN 978-90-481-6032-7 ISBN 978-94-017-0079-5 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-94-017-0079-5

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 2002 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 2002 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work.

E a consciencia de que a metafisica e uma consequencia de estar mal disposto. Tabacaria, Alvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa), 1928

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

XI

INTRODUCTION

1.

Particular properties 1.1 Theoretical background 1.2 Theoretical framework 1.3 The book

2

TROPES

1. 2. 3. 4.

What is it to be a trope? Simple Particular Abstract

3

METAPHYSICS

1. 2.

4. 5.

Setting the general framework The aim of investigation 2.1 Subject matter 2.2 Goal The method of investigation 3.1 Whitehead on metaphysics 3.2 The method of discovery Metaphysics and science The success of investigation

4

TRUTH-MAKING

1. 2.

Metaphysics and language Making true 2.1 Entailment

3.

1 3 5 7

8 11 16 21

25 26 26 29 30 32 33 35 36

37 39 41 vii

viii 3. 4.

5.

Truth bearers Logical Atomism 4.1 What is an atomic proposition? 4.2 Working out the atomistic hypothesis Truth-maker theory and tropes 5.1 Propositions ostensibly about things 5.2 Propositions ostensibly about universals

5

THE PROBLEM OF UNIVERSALISATION

1.

The problem of universalisation introduced 1.1 Two problems distinguished 1.2 What the problem is and what it is not 1.3 Constructing universality A first attempt: the unity is primitive 2.1 Stout and distributive unity 2.2 Some of Armstrong's arguments against class-nominalism disarmed 2.3 More serious problems for class-primitivism 2.4 Summary A second attempt: resemblance 3.1 Two presuppositions 3.2 Degrees of resemblance 3.3 Same but different 3.4 Is resemblance internal or external? 3.5 Ontologically characterising exact resemblance 3.6 A first alternative: exact resemblance as an underived relation 3.7 A second alternative: exact resemblance as a