Types: Essays in Metaphysics (Philosophy of History and Culture)

This book consists of a series of applications to ontology, the philosophy of mind, and aesthetics, of two nominalistic theses: first, that all the things we encounter (houses, cats, people, symphonies, and also hair, milk, red, and love) are types, and second, that things are ontologically incomplete. Types are material things that recur at several indices, at which they are identical with other things; thus in this world Man=Mortal, and today Jane=Happy. The Jupiter Symphony is a material thing that recurs at various times at homes and concert halls. Like all things it is ontologically incomplete (it is undetermined with respect to some properties); therefore it can be interpreted, that is, be identical with some things more complete than it is. Using these ideas new, simple and metaphysically frugal solutions are offered to a plethora of questions that have beset philosophy ever since Plato.