Trope (philosophy)
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[edit] In philosophy of history
The use of tropes has been extended from a linguistic usage to the field of philosophy of history by, among other theorists, Hayden White in his Metahistory (1973). Tropes are generally understood to be styles of discourse - rather than figures of style - underlying the historian's writing of history. They are historically determined in as much as the historiography of every period is defined by a specific type of trope.
For Hayden White, tropes historically unfolded in this sequence: metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, and finally, irony.
[edit] Trope theory in metaphysics
- See also: Nominalism#Varieties_of_nominalism
Trope theory in metaphysics is a flavor of nominalism. Here, a trope is a particular instance of a property, like the specific redness of a rose. This use of the term goes back to D. C. Williams (1953).
Tropes have been presented as a possible solution to the problem of universals. Very briefly, one part of the problem of universals is determining what it is for two tokens to be of the same type. To give a concrete example, part of the problem would be determining what it is for six different green objects to all be the same in respect to their color. Two popular solutions to the problem of universals, as it relates to the possibility of entities existing in multiple locations at the same time, are as follows.
David Armstrong, a well known Australian philosopher, argues that there are instantiated universals. Briefly, an instantiated universal is a property (such as being green) that can exist in multiple locations at the same time. Going back to the problem of universals, for six different objects to all be green would be for each object to instantiate the universal green. The very same, identical universal green would be wholly located at each green object. To be even more specific, if a frog and a leaf are the same shade of green, the green of the frog and the green of the leaf are one and the same entity which happens to be multiply located.
Keith Campbell and Michael LaBossiere, among others, reject instantiated universals in favor of tropes. Briefly, a trope is a property (such as being green) that can only exist in one location at one time. Trope theorists explain what it is for two tokens to be of the same type in terms of resemblance. As an example, for six different objects to all be green would be for each object to have its own distinct green trope. Each green trope would be a different entity from the other green tropes, but they would resemble each other and would all be taken to be green because of their resemblance.
