Substrata and Bundles
Loading...
Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
After the defense of Platonic universals it is necessary to consider how are particulars to be conceived, given that their characters are grounded in what universals those particulars instantiate. There have been traditionally two great alternatives for understanding the nature of particular objects. Under one alternative the ‘particularity’ of a particular is dependent on a substratum that is the subject of instantiation of different universals and its principle of unity. Under other alternative, particulars are ‘bundles’ or ‘collections’ of properties, either universals or tropes. This chapter examines the problems that these traditional conceptions face. On the one hand, it is argued that the difficulties leveled against substrata are not compelling. On the other hand, it is argued that the difficulties affecting the theories of particular objects as bundles of properties seem to demand structures of ontological dependence, like those postulated by Husserl in his idea of ‘pregnant wholes’.
Description
Keywords
Primitive facts of resemblance, Inductive practices, Resemblance classes of module tropes, Modal metaphysics, Objections against transcendent universals, Transcendent universals