Abstract
Heavy duty property realism is an extremely ideologically parsimonious version of realism about properties, where realism about properties is the view that there are properties. Heavy duty property realists, for example, endorse metaphysical analyses such as (1) and (2), where ‘a’ refers to the property of being positively charged and ‘b’ refers to the relation of being one meter from.
(1) x is unit positively charged =df x instantiates a
(2) x is one meter from y =df x, y instantiates b
As a result of endorsing such analyses, heavy duty realists are able endorse a theory containing only a handful of primitive expressions, such as ‘not’, ‘and’, ‘for some’ and the multigrade predicate ‘instantiates’. As a result of this, their theory is arguably significantly more ideologically parsimonious than credible rival theories of properties. I argue, however, that despite this attractive feature, heavy duty property realism should be rejected.
(1) x is unit positively charged =df x instantiates a
(2) x is one meter from y =df x, y instantiates b
As a result of endorsing such analyses, heavy duty realists are able endorse a theory containing only a handful of primitive expressions, such as ‘not’, ‘and’, ‘for some’ and the multigrade predicate ‘instantiates’. As a result of this, their theory is arguably significantly more ideologically parsimonious than credible rival theories of properties. I argue, however, that despite this attractive feature, heavy duty property realism should be rejected.
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 6 Jul 2017 |
Event | Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference 2017 - The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia Duration: 2 Jul 2017 → 6 Jul 2017 https://aap.org.au/Conference-2017 (Conference Website) |
Conference
Conference | Australasian Association of Philosophy Conference 2017 |
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Country/Territory | Australia |
City | Adelaide |
Period | 2/07/17 → 6/07/17 |
Internet address |
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