Trope theory is the view that reality is (wholly or partly) made up from tropes. Tropes are things like the particular shape, weight, and texture of an individual object. Because tropes are particular, for two objects to ‘share’ a property (for them both to exemplify, say, a particular shade of green) is for each to contain (instantiate, exemplify) a greenness-trope, where those greenness-tropes, although numerically distinct, nevertheless exactly resemble each other. — SEP
You could do, but you have three options; — Pseudonym
Now is there a way to determine which metaphysical statements are meaningful and which ones aren't? — Marchesk
They disagree with him because they dispute his definition of the word 'meaningful'. But Wittgenstein tries to show how it is not possible to accurately derive the 'right' definition for a word like 'meaningful' and so disagreements are dissolved. — Pseudonym
This is a psychological question... — Snakes Alive
All I'm saying is that to say talk of similarity and categorization boils down to psychology — StreetlightX
But the question of how people come to recognize similarities surely is. — Snakes Alive
alk of properties is part of our pre-philosophical heritage. I see no reason to think of properties as philosophers have. If philosophers want to talk about properties, it's their job to pay respect to the pre-philosophical usage, not vice-versa. — Snakes Alive
he point is that talk of universals does not merely "have issues" – there is no body there to have issues to begin with. It's just empty. — Snakes Alive
the questions of metaphysics have been debated for centuries, and those debating them have seemingly understood what each other were saying. — Ciceronianus the White
The statements of a fairy tale do not conflict with logic, but only with experience; they are perfectly meaningful, although false. Metaphysics is not "superstition "; it is possible to believe true and false propositions, but not to believe meaningless sequences of words. — Ciceronianus the White
those debating it do not seem to understand what they are saying — Snakes Alive
but not really possible to be taken seriously on its own terms (and indeed, those who debate it seem not to take it seriously on its own terms either – it's a kind of game whose playing has other edifying effects). — Snakes Alive
Is that because you refuse to acknowledge hat what they're saying is meaningful? Because I find it meaningful. — Marchesk
I don't agree with this. Most metaphysics might not have implications for daily life anymore than a math or physics problem. But that doesn't mean it isn't taken seriously by those who engage in it. — Marchesk
Yet you cannot explain what it means. Shouldn't that give you pause? — Snakes Alive
That's hardly surprising, though, is it? What else could it be grounded on but us, our experience and our use of language as living creatures that are part of the world? Language is an empirical phenomenon, its existence and its use are verifiable; why should its meaning be otherwise?Right, and he provides the criteria for what makes a statement meaningful. In that paper, it's anything which is logical or can be verified by experience. It's an empirical grounding of meaning. — Marchesk
Part of what is striking about metaphysics, to me, is that this isn't so: those debating it do not seem to understand what they are saying, or what the other is saying. Hence the sympathy for the positivist position that metaphysics is not an area of inquiry so much as a sort of linguistic hitch, to be studied anthropologically as to its sources, but not really possible to be taken seriously on its own terms (and indeed, those who debate it seem not to take it seriously on its own terms either – it's a kind of game whose playing has other edifying effects). — Snakes Alive
Language is an empirical phenomenon, its existence and its use are verifiable; why should its meaning be otherwise? — Ciceronianus the White
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