The Elements of Being

Essays in Metaphysics

Bibliographic Data

ID23135606
AuthorsDonald C Williams (corresponding author)
EditorsA R J Fisher (0000-0001-5351-4521)
Year2018
Pages256
Publication date2018-04-19
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueThe Elements and Patterns of Being (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/oso/9780198810384.003.0003
OpenAlexW2801968941
ISBN9780198810384
Open LibraryOL27847257M
LanguageEN
Citations received15

This chapter concerns the nature of universals and of substance. The problem of universals invites us to explain how many things can be of the same kind. The nature of substance demands an account of how one thing can have many properties. It is argued that the solution to the problem of universals entails nothing more than the hypothesis that similar concrete particulars have distinct aspects or abstract parts that perfectly resemble each other. There is no need to postulate a universal that two or more concrete particulars have in common. It is further suggested that concrete particulars are composed of these aspects or abstract parts, which are called ‘tropes’ or ‘abstract particulars’. Thus universals and substances are reduced to tropes, and tropes are the fundamental constituents of reality. The notion of an abstract particular is defended against several objections and the explanatory power of trope ontology is demonstrated.

Epistemology · Linguistics · Metaphysics · Nominalism · Nothing · Ontology · Problem of universals · Trope (literature) · Classical Philosophy and Thought · Philosophy

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