Combinatorialism revisited

Armstrong, David (2004) Combinatorialism revisited. In: La Structure du Mond: objets, propriétés, états et choses: renouveau de la métaphysique dans l'école australienne. Vrin, Paris, pp. 185-198. ISBN 2711616274

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Abstract

The object of this paper is to argue once again for the combinatorial account of possibility defended in earlier work (Armstrong, 1989, 1997). But there I failed fully to realise the dialectical advantages that accrue once one begins by assuming the hypothesis of logical atomism, the hypothesis that postulates simple particulars and simple universals (properties and relations) at the bottom of the world. Logical atomism is, I incline to think, no better than ‘speculative cosmology’ as opposed to ‘analytic ontology’, to use Donald Williams’ terminology (Williams, 1966, p.74). It is, however, not an implausible

hypothesis given the current state of quantum physics. More important for our purposes here, the strictly combinatorial theory that flows rather naturally from

the atomist metaphysics shows some promise of continuing to hold (perhaps with a little mutatis mutandis) in a world that is not an atomist world.

Item Type: Book Section
RIS ID: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1021183
Additional Information: This paper was published in French as “Theorie Combinatoire Revue et Corrigée” in J-M. Monnoyer (ed) La Structure du Mond: objets, propriétés, états et choses, Paris, Vrin, 2004, pp.185-198. It appears here with minor corrections. ISBN: 2-7116-1627-4
Keywords: Combinatorialism
Schools/Departments: University of Nottingham, UK > Faculty of Arts > School of Humanities > Department of Philosophy
Depositing User: Hutchinson, Mrs Lindsay
Date Deposited: 17 Dec 2007 16:29
Last Modified: 04 May 2020 20:31
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/716

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