White, Ben (2021) A Reductive Analysis of Statements about Universals. [Preprint]
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Abstract
This paper proposes an analysis of statements about universals according to which such statements assert nothing more than that the evidence we’d take to confirm them obtains, where this evidence is understood to consist solely of patterns in the behavior of particulars that cannot be explained by other regularities in the way things behave. On this analysis, to say that a universal exists is simply to say that there is such a pattern in the behavior of certain particulars, and for any predicate F that is presumed to correspond to a universal, to say that a particular is F is simply to say that its behavior exhibits a pattern of this sort. I argue that there is no theoretical work that we want postulations and ascriptions of universals to do that they’d be unfit for if analyzed in this way, and consequently that there is no reason to treat such statements as asserting anything more than what the proposed analysis suggests.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | ||||||
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| Additional Information: | Forthcoming in Synthese | ||||||
| Keywords: | universals; laws of nature; properties; nominalism; quidditism. | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Laws of Nature General Issues > Natural Kinds |
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| Depositing User: | Ben White | ||||||
| Date Deposited: | 31 Dec 2021 20:11 | ||||||
| Last Modified: | 31 Dec 2021 20:11 | ||||||
| Item ID: | 20059 | ||||||
| Subjects: | General Issues > Scientific Metaphysics General Issues > Explanation General Issues > Laws of Nature General Issues > Natural Kinds |
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| Date: | 2021 | ||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/20059 |
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