Trope theory and the ontology of chemistry |
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Authors: | Rom Harré |
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Institution: | (1) Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA |
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Abstract: | The traditional ontology within which chemistry has developed involved various versions of a general substance/attribute scheme.
Recently this has been challenged by two versions of Dynamism. One version is derived from the writings of A. N. Whitehead
and the other from several sources, including G. Leibniz and I. Kant. Both involve the idea of flux of actual occasions. Unlike
the former scheme, the latter involves a foundation of causal powers and the energetics of field theory. The situation has
been made more interesting because of the revival of trope theory, based on an ontology of particularized attributes. This
notion is claimed to resolve philosophical problems about the nature of universals and of substances through the introduction
of spatial and temporal sequences of tropes. While trope theory seems, at first sight, to work as an attractive alternative
to substance/attribute close inspection shows that it is beset with difficulties that are more problematic that the dynamist
ontology based on casual powers, dispositions and affordances.
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Keywords: | Substance Property Universal Chemistry Trope |
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