A Problem for Immanent Universals in States of Affairs

American Philosophical Quarterly 59 (1):1-9 (2022)
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Abstract

This paper raises a problem for the pair of views that universals are immanent in their instantiations and that these instantiations, or states of affairs, are somehow constructed from the instantiated universals. It is argued that the pair is inconsistent. The first view implies that universals are prior to states of affairs, whereas the second view implies that states of affairs are prior to universals. This paper does not attempt to solve this problem, but rather to formulate it precisely. That promises to illuminate how to solve the problem if it can be solved, or why it cannot be solved if it is unsolvable.

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Michael J. Raven
University of Victoria

Citations of this work

Platonic Laws of Nature.Tyler Hildebrand - 2020 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 50 (3):365-381.
Grounding and boundaries.Giulio Sciacca - forthcoming - Analytic Philosophy.

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References found in this work

Monism: The Priority of the Whole.Jonathan Schaffer - 2010 - Philosophical Review 119 (1):31-76.
No Work for a Theory of Grounding.Jessica M. Wilson - 2014 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 57 (5-6):535-579.
A World of States of Affairs.D. M. Armstrong - 1993 - Philosophical Perspectives 7:429-440.
Ground.Michael J. Raven - 2015 - Philosophy Compass 10 (5):322-333.
Grounding is not a strict order.Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra - 2015 - Journal of the American Philosophical Association 1 (3):517-534.

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