Tropes as Divine Acts: The Nature of Creaturely Properties in a World Sustained by God

Abstract

I aim to synthesize two issues within theistic metaphysics. The first concerns the metaphysics of creaturely properties and, more specifically, the nature of unshareable properties, or tropes. The second concerns the metaphysics of providence and, more specifically, the way in which God sustains creatures, or sustenance. I propose that creaturely properties, understood as what I call modifier tropes, are identical with divine acts of sustenance, understood as acts of property-conferral. I argue that this theistic conferralism is attractive because it integrates trope theory and the doctrine of sustenance in a mutually enhancing way. Taking modifier tropes to be divine acts mitigates certain weaknesses of trope theory and safeguards divine sustenance from the threat of both deism and occasionalism.

Tropes and qualitative change

“…(Compare Gonzalo Rodriguez‐Pereyra (2000) on the Many Over One problem.) Properties are important not because they are non‐qualitative quality‐givers (contra Garcia (2015a, 2015b)), but because they are qualitatively simple . They also serve as basic respects of similarity and foundations of similarity relations, as the basis for classification, as the grounds of causal powers, and as independent loci of change.…”

“…This is explicit inBrower's (2010) fourth solution to the problem of temporary intrinsics.11 Indeed, modifiers seem extrinsic to object-level character, which properties like sphericity shouldn't be. Compare Garcia's proposal that modifier tropes could be identified with divine acts of sustenance(Garcia, 2015b). Divine acts certainly sound extrinsic.…”