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Single Idea 8286

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

Full Idea

I do not believe that tropes or modes can have well-defined or fully determinate identity-conditions, and hence do not believe that they should be thought of as 'objects'.

Gist of Idea

Tropes cannot have clear identity-conditions, so they are not objects

Source

E.J. Lowe (The Possibility of Metaphysics [1998], 8.3)

Book Ref

Lowe,E.J.: 'The Possibility of Metaphysics' [OUP 2001], p.182

A Reaction

Lowe's account would still allow them to be 'entities'. Any proposal that they have an existence of their own, apart from the objects on which they depend, sounds very misguided. We won't make progress if we don't identify the real properties.

The 22 ideas with the same theme [arguments against the existence of tropes]:

14327 Trope theorists cannot explain how tropes resemble each other [Russell, by Mumford]
15480 Objects are not bundles of tropes (which are ways things are, not parts of things) [Martin,CB]
8538 Trope theory needs extra commitments, to symmetry and non-transitivity, unless resemblance is exact [Armstrong]
4445 If properties and relations are particulars, there is still the problem of how to classify and group them [Armstrong]
15750 Tropes need a similarity primitive, so they cannot be used to explain similarity [Lewis]
15749 Trope theory (unlike universals) needs a primitive notion of being duplicates [Lewis]
15748 Trope theory needs a primitive notion for what unites some tropes [Lewis]
8527 More than one trope (even identical ones!) can occupy the same location [Daly]
8528 If tropes are linked by the existence of concurrence, a special relation is needed to link them all [Daly]
10742 Tropes can overlap, and shouldn't be splittable into parts [Oliver]
4611 The supporters of 'tropes' treat objects as bundles of tropes, when I think objects 'possess' properties [Heil]
4483 If abstract terms are sets of tropes, 'being a unicorn' and 'being a griffin' turn out identical [Loux]
18352 Tropes have existence independently of any entities [Lowe]
8286 Tropes cannot have clear identity-conditions, so they are not objects [Lowe]
8294 How can tropes depend on objects for their identity, if objects are just bundles of tropes? [Lowe]
8296 Does a ball snug in plaster have one trope, or two which coincide? [Lowe]
8295 Why cannot a trope float off and join another bundle? [Lowe]
12253 If tropes are in space and time, in what sense are they abstract? [Oderberg]
4462 A colour-trope cannot be simple (as required), because it is spread in space, and so it is complex [Moreland]
4463 In 'four colours were used in the decoration', colours appear to be universals, not tropes [Moreland]
7959 How do a group of resembling tropes all resemble one another in the same way? [Macdonald,C]
7960 Trope Nominalism is the only nominalism to introduce new entities, inviting Ockham's Razor [Macdonald,C]