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Single Idea 10742

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 13. Tropes / b. Critique of tropes ]

Full Idea

More than one trope can occupy the same place at the same time, and a trope occupies a place without having parts which occupy parts of the place.

Gist of Idea

Tropes can overlap, and shouldn't be splittable into parts

Source

Alex Oliver (The Metaphysics of Properties [1996], §12)

Book Ref

-: 'Mind' [-], p.36


A Reaction

This is the general question of the size of a spatial trope, or 'how many red tropes in a tin of red paint?'


The 29 ideas from Alex Oliver

The expressions with properties as their meanings are predicates and abstract singular terms [Oliver]
There are five main semantic theories for properties [Oliver]
A metaphysics has an ontology (objects) and an ideology (expressed ideas about them) [Oliver]
Ockham's Razor has more content if it says believe only in what is causal [Oliver]
There are just as many properties as the laws require [Oliver]
'Structural universals' methane and butane are made of the same universals, carbon and hydrogen [Oliver]
We have four options, depending whether particulars and properties are sui generis or constructions [Oliver]
There are four conditions defining the relations between particulars and properties [Oliver]
If properties are sui generis, are they abstract or concrete? [Oliver]
Instantiation is set-membership [Oliver]
If universals ground similarities, what about uniquely instantiated universals? [Oliver]
Things can't be fusions of universals, because two things could then be one thing [Oliver]
Located universals are wholly present in many places, and two can be in the same place [Oliver]
Aristotle's instantiated universals cannot account for properties of abstract objects [Oliver]
Uninstantiated universals seem to exist if they themselves have properties [Oliver]
Uninstantiated properties are useful in philosophy [Oliver]
Abstract sets of universals can't be bundled to make concrete things [Oliver]
Tropes can overlap, and shouldn't be splittable into parts [Oliver]
Tropes are not properties, since they can't be instantiated twice [Oliver]
The property of redness is the maximal set of the tropes of exactly similar redness [Oliver]
The orthodox view does not allow for uninstantiated tropes [Oliver]
Maybe concrete particulars are mereological wholes of abstract particulars [Oliver]
Science is modally committed, to disposition, causation and law [Oliver]
Nominalism can reject abstractions, or universals, or sets [Oliver]
Conceptual priority is barely intelligible [Oliver]
Accepting properties by ontological commitment tells you very little about them [Oliver]
Reference is not the only way for a predicate to have ontological commitment [Oliver]
Necessary truths seem to all have the same truth-maker [Oliver]
Slingshot Argument: seems to prove that all sentences have the same truth-maker [Oliver]