Single Idea 7963

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / D. Universals / 3. Instantiated Universals]

Full Idea

Properties and relations of abstract objects may need to be acknowledged, but they would have no spatio-temporal location, so they cannot instantiate Aristotelian universals, there being nowhere for such universals to be.

Gist of Idea

Aristotle's instantiated universals cannot account for properties of abstract objects

Source

Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §11), quoted by Cynthia Macdonald - Varieties of Things

Book Reference

Macdonald,Cynthia: 'Varieties of Things' [Blackwell 2005], p.238


A Reaction

Maybe. Why can't the second-order properties be in the same location as the first-order ones? If the reply is that they would seem to be in many places at once, that is only restating the original problem of universals at a higher level.