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Properties in a Contingentist's Domain
Author(s) -
Miller Kristie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
pacific philosophical quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1468-0114
pISSN - 0279-0750
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0114.2012.01453.x
Subject(s) - metaphysics , problem of universals , epistemology , sort , philosophy , property (philosophy) , domain (mathematical analysis) , a priori and a posteriori , computer science , mathematics , mathematical analysis , information retrieval
This article attempts to make sense of property contingentism, the view that the metaphysical nature of properties is contingent. That is, it is contingent whether properties are universals or tropes or some other kind of entity. The article argues that even if one thinks that necessities are exhausted by conceptual truths and a posteriori necessities, the sort of methodology that can lead one to endorse contingentism in various domains in metaphysics does not give us good grounds to suppose that the nature of properties is contingent.