24.221: Metaphysics
Prof. Sally Haslanger
February 19, 2003
Provide short answers in your own words to the following questions based on your reading of ³New Work for a Theory of Universals² (in CRFM, pp. 163-197).
Assignments are due at the beginning of class on: 2/26/03
No late assignments will be accepted.
1. On Lewisıs view, what is a property, and how is a property different from a universal (indicate at least two ways in which they are different)?
2. According to Lewis, what is required in order to provide an adequate theory of properties? Sketch one example of how one might meet this condition of adequacy.
3. What is the ³One Over Many² argument? (Sketch the argument, indicating its premises and conclusion.) What is Lewisıs objection to it?
4. What, on Lewisıs view, is the difference between an ³analysis² and an ³account².
You may skim, pp. 178-192 to get a rough sense of what Lewis thinks the ³new work² for a theory of universals, or primitively natural properties would be. For extra credit (optional), sketch briefly one problem that a theory of universals or primitively natural properties could solve, and indicate how it might do so.