1st Edition
The Routledge Handbook of Properties
Philosophical questions regarding both the existence and nature of properties are ubiquitous in ordinary life, the sciences, and philosophical theorising. In philosophy, it is one of the oldest topics discussed in various intellectual traditions – East and West – reaching back to Plato and Aristotle. Today, in the analytic tradition, properties continue to be a core area of study and research.
The Routledge Handbook of Properties is an outstanding reference source to this perennial topic and is the first major volume of its kind. It contains forty specially commissioned chapters written by an international team of expert contributors, and is divided into nine clear parts:
- Methodology and Metaontology
- Distinctions
- Realism about Universals
- Nominalism
- Trope Theory
- Properties in Causation, Time, and Modality
- Properties in Science
- Properties in Language and Mind
- Properties in the Normative Realm, the Social World, and Aesthetics
The Routledge Handbook of Properties is essential reading for anyone studying and researching metaphysics, metametaphysics, and ontology, and will also be of interest to those in closely related areas such as philosophy of science, philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, ethics, and aesthetics.
Introduction: the importance of properties A.R.J. Fisher and Anna-Sofia Maurin
Part 1
: Methodology and metaontology
1. Quantification and ontological commitment Nicholas K. Jones
2. The method of paraphrase John A. Keller
3. Properties as truthmakers Bradley Rettler
4. Naturalness: abundant and sparse properties Elanor Taylor
Part 2: Distinctions
5. Universality and particularity Daniel Giberman
6. Are properties abstract entities? Sam Cowling
7. Relations: existence and Nature Fraser MacBride
8. Intrinsic/extrinsic Vera Hoffmann-Kolss
9. Essential versus accidental properties Fabrice Correia
10. Determinate/determinable Eric Funkhouser
Part 3: Realism about universals
11. Platonic realism Chad Carmichael
12. Immanent realism and states of affairs Bo R. Meinertsen
13. Location and properties Nikk Effingham
14. Universals and the bundle theory Jiri Benovsky
Part 4: Nominalism
15. Ostrich nominalism Michael Devitt
16. Class nominalism and resemblance nominalism Gonzalo Rodriguez-Pereyra
17. Priority and grounding nominalism Guido Imaguire
18. Nominalism in mathematics Jody Azzouni
Part 5: Trope theory
19. Trope nominalisms Douglas Ehring
20. Types of tropes: modifier and module Robert K. Garcia
21. Trope bundle theories of substance Markku Keinänen and Jani Hakkarainen
22. Trope-relations Anna-Sofia Maurin
Part 6: Properties in causation, time, and modality
23. Causation and properties Carolina Sartorio
24. Dispositional properties Jennifer McKitrick
25. Events, processes, and properties Carlo Rossi
26. Temporal properties Katarina Perović
27. Possible worlds as properties Peter Forrest
28. Powers, potentialities and modality Barbara Vetter
Part 7: Properties in science
29. Properties and natural kinds Alexander Bird
30. Laws of nature Tuomas E. Tahko
31. Emergent properties Anne Sophie Meincke
32. Quantitative properties J.E. Wolff
Part 8: Properties in language and mind
33. Reference to properties in natural language Friederike Moltmann
34. Mental causation and higher-order properties David Robb
35. Qualia as properties of experiences Umut Baysan
36. Properties in perception Bence Nanay
Part 9: Properties in the normative realm, the social world, and aesthetics
37. Normative properties Matti Eklund
38. Moral properties Caj Strandberg
39. Social properties Dee Payton
40. Aesthetic properties Sonia Sedivy.
Index
Biography
A.R.J. Fisher is a Lecturer in Philosophy at Gonzaga University, USA. His research focuses on the metaphysics of properties, time, and modality. He also works on the history of twentieth-century metaphysics, writing on metaphysical topics from a historical perspective. He edited Donald C. Williams’s The Elements and Patterns of Being (2018), and is presently writing a monograph on Williams’s metaphysics (forthcoming).
Anna-Sofia Maurin is a Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research focuses on issues in (meta)metaphysics, especially tropes, unity in complexity, ontological justification, infinite regress arguments, grounding, and metaphysical explanation. Her most recent research also covers debates in social ontology. She is the author of If Tropes (2002), and Properties in the Cambridge Elements in Metaphysics series (2022).
