Classical Theism, Philosophy, and Religion Forum / Poll: What are properties?

**Posted by John West** 9/25/2016 3:25 pm

I'm trying to get an idea of what everyone thinks:

**Posted by Dennis** 10/01/2016 9:55 am

Since a few people believe in the existence of tropes, does anyone know why exactly Armstrong thinks that the bundle theory of tropes commits one to a relationist view of space?

**Posted by John West** 10/01/2016 11:34 am

Probably something like: if everything that exists is either a property-trope (quality- or relation-trope) or bundle of property-tropes, we have to assay space using only property-tropes. But if substantivalism about space is true, there is at least one substance instantiating qualities (space). So if trope bundle theorists think everything that exists is either a property-trope or bundle of property-tropes, they can't be substantivalists about space.

Either substantivalism or relationalism about space is right.* So if trope bundle theorists think everything that exists is either a property-trope or bundle of property-tropes, they have to be relationalists about space.

*Pace anti-realists about space.

**Posted by Dennis** 10/08/2016 10:40 pm

As I understand it, should substantivalism be true, then there could be space independent of anything else existing, this to me implies that there'd be nothing there for space to have a compresence relation with, and therefore, there would be something which exists independent of a bundle. If this isn't the intuition behind why bundle of tropes theorists can't analyze space non-relationally, then I'm not sure if I get the argument.

(1) My question is, what is it about a property-trope that commits them to the relational view of space?

Maybe I'm getting hung up on the terminology. (2) Is the argument that if all we're going to use is property-tropes, then given that space could exist independent of a bundle, but we want to analyze it as a property-trope, what is it a property of? Thus, we should use substance-tropes for space and then abandon bundle theory. But (3) doesn't a trope already serve both as a susbtance and a property?

Last edited by Dennis (10/08/2016 10:43 pm)