The Metaphysic of Abstract Particulars KEITH CAMPBELL
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RN and Russell's Regress
Australasian Journal of Philosophy, 2001, 79 (3), pp. 395-408. RESEMBLANCE NOMINALISM AND RUSSELL’S REGRESS Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra University of Edinburgh In a famous passage Bertrand Russell argued that any attempt, like that of Resemblance Nominalism, to get rid of universals in favour of resemblances fails [20, p. 48]. More precisely, Russell thought that no resemblance theory could avoid postulating a universal of resemblance without falling into a vicious infinite regress. And he added that admitting a universal of resemblance made it pointless to avoid other universals. In this paper I shall defend Resemblance Nominalism, a theory which gets rid of universals in terms of resemblances, from both of Russell’s points by arguing (a) Resemblance Nominalism can avoid the postulation of a universal of resemblance without falling into a vicious infinite regress (§V) and (b) even if Resemblance Nominalism had to admit a universal of resemblance, this would not make it pointless to avoid the postulation of other universals (§VI). But before doing so I shall briefly introduce Resemblance Nominalism (§I) and Russell’s regress (§II), and then I shall consider some failed arguments and strategies against the regress (§§III−IV). I. Resemblance Nominalism. Resemblance Nominalism is a solution to the Problem of Universals. I have argued elsewhere that the Problem of Universals, strictly understood, is what I call the Many over One, rather than the traditional One over Many [17, pp. 269-70]. The Many over One is the problem of explaining how a single particular can have a multiplicity of properties [17, pp. 269-70]. Thus solutions to the Problem of Universals account for what it is for any thing or particular a to have properties F, G, H etc. -
The Problem of Universals in Contemporary Philosophy∗ Scuola Normale Superiore [Pisa - July 5, 2010]
93 Reportage 7 novembre 2010 International conference on Ontology The problem of universals in contemporary philosophy∗ Scuola Normale Superiore [Pisa - July 5, 2010] Gianmarco Brunialti Masera Overview The three-day conference opened in the afternoon of July, 5 and, after taking a quick look at the programme and the names of the important thinkers standing out on it, one could have expected to find a crowded audience room. Actually that was not quite the case. What I could afford to follow and am going to write about here is only the first day of the conference. The debate started right on time, after a short introduction given by Gabriele Galluzzo, both organizer of the conference and member of the scientific board. I would ac- tually like to underline the word debate: each speech (about 40 minutes) was immediately followed by a short discussion of the issues introduced by the proponent. Unfortunately, de- spite of the accurate and punctual speeches, the little time dedicated to each is what most penalized the conference, in my opinion: this inevitably obliged both the speakers and the audience to be plunged in medias res, without standing too much on ceremonies. I take this to be ‘penalizing’, considering the debate on universals is a very wide one and composed by an incredibly great number of positions which can sometimes start from oppo- site sides and some other times depart at some specific middle point of one single theory of properties and relations. Moreover, most (if not all) of them entail a certain number of other metaphysical themes from which the specific problematics of universals cannot be cut off. -
Nuclear Bundles of Tropes and Ontological Dependence
Nuclear Bundles of Tropes and Ontological Dependence JOSÉ TOMÁS ALVARADO OST DEFENDERS OF TROPE METAPHYSICS have maintained that particular objects should be reduced to bundles of tropes. Part of the attraction M of a trope metaphysic is the work that tropes can do for understanding the nature of both particulars and universals. On one hand, what we call ‘universals’ can be conceived as resemblance classes of tropes. On the other hand, particular objects are nothing but pluralities of tropes satisfying certain conditions (cf. for example, Williams 1953a, 1953b; Campbell 1981, 1990; Maurin 2002; Ehring 2011). But, what are exactly those conditions that make a plurality of tropes a particular object? It has not been easy to fill in the details of a trope theory of objects and, then, it is not surprising that a variety of different proposals have been put to the fore. Some have said that objects can be understood as mereological fusions of compresent tropes. Some have said that objects can be understood as pluralities of tropes that happen to be «co– instantiated». Some have said that «co–instantiation» is just a primitive fundamental ontological fact. Some have said that it is a relational trope, albeit an especial one. For example, a relational trope that is essentially a relation between the tropes that compose an object, although the related tropes are independent from each other (cf. Maurin 2002, pp. 164–166). For others the co–instantiation trope is a relational trope that happens to relate all the tropes composing an object, including itself (cf. Ehring 2011, pp. -
What Is Philosophy.Pdf
I N T R O D U C T I O N What Is Philosophy? CHAPTER 1 The Task of Philosophy CHAPTER OBJECTIVES Reflection—thinking things over—. [is] the beginning of philosophy.1 In this chapter we will address the following questions: N What Does “Philosophy” Mean? N Why Do We Need Philosophy? N What Are the Traditional Branches of Philosophy? N Is There a Basic Method of Philo- sophical Thinking? N How May Philosophy Be Used? N Is Philosophy of Education Useful? N What Is Happening in Philosophy Today? The Meanings Each of us has a philos- “having” and “doing”—cannot be treated en- ophy, even though we tirely independent of each other, for if we did of Philosophy may not be aware of not have a philosophy in the formal, personal it. We all have some sense, then we could not do a philosophy in the ideas concerning physical objects, our fellow critical, reflective sense. persons, the meaning of life, death, God, right Having a philosophy, however, is not suffi- and wrong, beauty and ugliness, and the like. Of cient for doing philosophy. A genuine philo- course, these ideas are acquired in a variety sophical attitude is searching and critical; it is of ways, and they may be vague and confused. open-minded and tolerant—willing to look at all We are continuously engaged, especially during sides of an issue without prejudice. To philoso- the early years of our lives, in acquiring views phize is not merely to read and know philoso- and attitudes from our family, from friends, and phy; there are skills of argumentation to be mas- from various other individuals and groups. -
An Introduction to Philosophy
An Introduction to Philosophy W. Russ Payne Bellevue College Copyright (cc by nc 4.0) 2015 W. Russ Payne Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document with attribution under the terms of Creative Commons: Attribution Noncommercial 4.0 International or any later version of this license. A copy of the license is found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ 1 Contents Introduction ………………………………………………. 3 Chapter 1: What Philosophy Is ………………………….. 5 Chapter 2: How to do Philosophy ………………….……. 11 Chapter 3: Ancient Philosophy ………………….………. 23 Chapter 4: Rationalism ………….………………….……. 38 Chapter 5: Empiricism …………………………………… 50 Chapter 6: Philosophy of Science ………………….…..… 58 Chapter 7: Philosophy of Mind …………………….……. 72 Chapter 8: Love and Happiness …………………….……. 79 Chapter 9: Meta Ethics …………………………………… 94 Chapter 10: Right Action ……………………...…………. 108 Chapter 11: Social Justice …………………………...…… 120 2 Introduction The goal of this text is to present philosophy to newcomers as a living discipline with historical roots. While a few early chapters are historically organized, my goal in the historical chapters is to trace a developmental progression of thought that introduces basic philosophical methods and frames issues that remain relevant today. Later chapters are topically organized. These include philosophy of science and philosophy of mind, areas where philosophy has shown dramatic recent progress. This text concludes with four chapters on ethics, broadly construed. I cover traditional theories of right action in the third of these. Students are first invited first to think about what is good for themselves and their relationships in a chapter of love and happiness. Next a few meta-ethical issues are considered; namely, whether they are moral truths and if so what makes them so. -
Predication and the Problem of Universals Catherine Legg
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Research Commons@Waikato Philosophical Papers Vol. 30, No. 2 (July 2001): 117-143 Predication and the Problem of Universals Catherine Legg Abstract: This paper contrasts the scholastic realists of David Armstrong and Charles Peirce. It is argued that the so-called 'problem of universals' is not a problem in pure ontology (concerning whether universals exist) as Armstrong construes it to be. Rather, it extends to issues concerning which predicates should be applied where, issues which Armstrong sets aside under the label of 'semantics', and which from a Peircean perspective encompass even the fundamentals of scientific methodology. It is argued that Peir ce's scholastic realism not only presents a more nuanced ontology (distinguishing the existent front the real) but also provides more of a sense of why realism should be a position worth fighting for. ... a realist is simply one who knows no more recondite reality than that which is represented in a true representation. C.S. Peirce Like many other philosophical problems, the grandly-named 'Problem of Universals' is difficult to define without begging the question that it raises. Laurence Goldstein, however, provides a helpful hands-off denotation of the problem by noting that it proceeds from what he calls The Trivial Obseruation:2 The observation is the seemingly incontrovertible claim that, 'sometimes some things have something in common'. The 1 Philosophical Writings of Peirce, ed. Justus Buehler (New York: Dover Publications, 1955), 248. 2 Laurence Goldstein, 'Scientific Scotism – The Emperor's New Trousers or Has Armstrong Made Some Real Strides?', Australasian Journal of Philosophy, vol 61, No. -
Trope Theory, Resemblance, and Russell's Regress
Trope Theory, Resemblance, and Russell's Regress Florian Boge 12.07.2012 Structure • Introduction – what are tropes? – Nominalism about universals – Bundle theory – A refinement: nucleus theory • Similarity relations – A trope theoretical measure for relative resemblance • The resemblance regress – a fundamental problem for trope theory – Is it vicious? – Similarity as internal – A cognitivist approach as a possible solution • Perfect resemblance defined What are tropes? • Definition: Tropes are the particular properties (property instances) of a given concrete entity (cf. Campbell 1990, 18). They are abstract particulars. – Relatons = polyadic tropes – Qualitons = monadic tropes (cf. Bacon 2008, 2) • An entity is called abstract (in this context) iff. it is a part of some other entity, which can only be separated in thought (cf. Rojek 2008, 361). • Particulars (indviduals) = entities which only exist in one place at one time (interval) Spacio-temproal location as an important criterion for individuality according to trope theory: “[O]ur abstract particulars are particulars because they have a local habitation, even if no name. They exist as individuals at unique place- times.” (Campbell 1990, 3) What are tropes? • Examples: – The particular shape of a given chair – Bill Clinton‟s eloquence – „This redness‟, in contrast to „redness‟ in general • Supposed to provide an alternative to realism about universals Trope theory is a form of nominalism about universals Needs to explain our use of general terms Should be able to explain every day life‟s entities such as things, their appearance, their relations etc. Nominalism about universals • Nominalism about universals = attempt to provide an explanation of general terms (i.e. terms for types, properties, relations etc.) without appeal to universals • Universals = entities that are multiply exemplified i.e. -
“Bare Particulars”∗ Theodore Sider Philosophical Perspectives 20 (2006), 387–97
“Bare Particulars”∗ Theodore Sider Philosophical Perspectives 20 (2006), 387–97 One often hears a complaint about “bare particulars”. This complaint has bugged me for years. I know it bugs others too, but no one seems to have vented in print, so that is what I propose to do. (I hope also to say a few constructive things along the way.) The complaint is aimed at the substratum theory, which says that partic- ulars are, in a certain sense, separate from their universals. If universals and particulars are separate, connected to each other only by a relation of instanti- ation, then, it is said, the nature of these particulars becomes mysterious. In themselves, they do not have any properties at all. They are nothing but a pincushion into which universals may be poked. They are Locke’s “I know not what” (1689, II, xxiii, §2); they are Plato’s receptacles (Timaeus 48c–53c); they are “bare particulars”.1 Against substratum theory there is the bundle theory, according to which particulars are just bundles of universals. The substratum and bundle theories agree on much. They agree that both universals and particulars exist. And they agree that a particular in some sense has universals. (I use phrases like ‘particular P has universal U ’ and ‘particular P’s universals’ neutrally as between the substratum and bundle theories.) But the bundle theory says that a particular is exhaustively composed of (i.e., is a mereological fusion of) its universals. The substratum theory, on the other hand, denies this. Take a particular, and mereologically subtract away its universals. -
Metaphysics: a Contemporary Introduction: Third Edition
Metaphysics Metaphysics: A contemporary introduction is for students who have already done an introductory philosophy course. Michael J. Loux provides a fresh look at the central topics in metaphysics, making this essential reading for any student of the subject. This third edition is revised and updated and includes two new chapters on Time and Causation. Topics addressed include: • the problem of universals • the nature of abstract entities • the problem of individuation • the nature of modality • identity through time • the nature of time • the Realism/anti-Realism debate Wherever possible, Michael J. Loux relates contemporary views to their classical sources in the history of philosophy. As an experienced teacher of philosophy and an important contributor to recent debates, Loux is uniquely qualified to write this book. The third edition retains the student-friendly features of previous editions: • chapter overviews summarizing the main topics of study • examples to clarify difficult concepts • annotated further reading at the end of each chapter • endnotes and a full bibliography Michael J. Loux is Shuster Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is also editor of Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings, designed to accompany this textbook and also published by Routledge. His book Substance and Attribute (1978) is one of the major metaphysics books of recent years. Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy Series editor: Paul K. Moser Loyola University of Chicago This innovative, well-structured series is for students who have already done an introductory course in philosophy. Each book introduces a core general subject in contemporary philosophy and offers students an access- ible but substantial transition from introductory to higher-level college work in that subject. -
Armstrong and Tropes Proof.Pdf
Peter Simons Armstrong and Tropes “So the philosophy of tropes is riding high.” David Armstrong, U 125.¹ Appreciation 5 In 1974, while a graduate student at the University of Manchester, I rst heard David Armstrong give a talk. It was on various regress arguments against nominalism, later published in NR. At that time I was not a nominalist and the arguments seemed sound. What impressed me much more forcibly however was Armstrong’s refreshing direct- ness in addressing metaphysical issues. At that time, metaphysics was largely still 10 under the domination of the philosophy of language, and arguments about the na- ture of universals tended to go via consideration of predicates, semantics and so on. Armstrong’s rejection of bad old arguments from meaning cut through that tangle like Alexander’s sword through the Gordian knot, and we were left face to face with the metaphysical question itself: are there universals, or are there not? Just as in the phe- 15 nomenological tradition Roman Ingarden had broken away from Husserl’s transcen- dental anxietizing, so in the analytical tradition Armstrong broke away from Straw- son’s Aristotelian-Kantian linguistic metaphysics-lite and Quine’s Carnapian insou- ciance as to ultimates. The idea that metaphysics might regain her status as the Queen of Philosophy was implanted, and has stayed with me ever since. I owe David a great 20 intellectual debt for making this clear by living example. The next time I saw David was in 1990 at Zinal, by which time we and things had both moved on, and this essay is about some of those things. -
What Is Inference? Penalty
WHAT IS INFERENCE? OR THE FORCE OF REASONING by Ulf Hlobil Dipl.-Psych., University of Trier, 2008 Magister Artium in Philosophy, University of Trier, 2009 M.A. in Philosophy, University of Pittsburgh, 2012 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2016 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH KENNETH P. DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Ulf Hlobil It was defended on May 31, 2016 and approved by Robert Brandom, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy John McDowell, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy Kieran Setiya, Professor of Philosophy James Shaw, Associate Professor of Philosophy Dissertation Director: Robert Brandom, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy ii Copyright © by Ulf Hlobil 2016 iii WHAT IS INFERENCE? OR THE FORCE OF REASONING Ulf Hlobil, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2016 What are we doing when we make inferences? I argue that to make an inference is to attach inferential force to an argument. Inferential force must be understood in analogy to assertoric force, and an argument is a structure of contents. I call this the “Force Account of inference.” I develop this account by first establishing two criteria of adequacy for accounts of inference. First, such accounts must explain why it is absurd to make an inference one believes to be bad. The upshot is that if someone makes an inference, she must take her inference to be good. Second, accounts of inference must explain why we cannot take our inferences to be good—in the sense that matters for inference—by merely accepting testimony to the effect that they are good. -
William Ockham and Trope Nominalism
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department Classics and Religious Studies 1998 William Ockham and Trope Nominalism Stephen E. Lahey University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub Part of the Classics Commons Lahey, Stephen E., "William Ockham and Trope Nominalism" (1998). Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department. 85. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/classicsfacpub/85 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classics and Religious Studies at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, Classics and Religious Studies Department by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. William Ockhsun and Trope Nominalism Can we take a medieval metaphysician out of his scholastic robes and force him into a metaphysical apparatus as seemingly foreign to him as a tuxedo might be? I believe that the terminological and conceptual differences that appear to prevent this can be overcome in many cases, and that one case most amenable to this project is the medieval problem of universals. After all, the problem for the medieval is, at base, the same as it is for contemporary philosophers, as for Plato: How do we account, ontologically, for many tokens of the same type? If one object has the property x and another, distinct object has the "same" property x, how to explain the apparent "samenessw of the property x? Is x one property or two? I will argue that William Ockharn's ontology, when considered in light of some contemporary philosophical thought, is remarkably fresh and vital, able seriously to be con- sidered as a tenable position, so long as we are clear about what Ockham is saying.