Single Idea 5465

[catalogued under 7. Existence / D. Theories of Reality / 9. States of Affairs]

Full Idea

Russell and Wittgenstein sought to reduce everything to singular facts or states of affairs, and Armstrong and Keith Campbell have more recently advocated ontologies of tropes or elementary states of affairs.

Clarification

'Tropes' are single bare instances of properties

Gist of Idea

Modern trope theory tries, like logical atomism, to reduce things to elementary states

Source

report of Bertrand Russell (The Philosophy of Logical Atomism [1918]) by Brian Ellis - The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism Ch.3 n 11

Book Reference

Ellis,Brian: 'The Philosophy of Nature: new essentialism' [Acumen 2002], p.58


A Reaction

A very interesting historical link. Logical atomism strikes me as a key landmark in the history of philosophy, and not an eccentric cul-de-sac. It is always worth trying to get your ontology down to minimal small units, to see what happens.