Slot Theory and Slotite Theory.

'Instantiation-directed slot theorists' believe that properties/relations have slots which are filled by their instances/relata e.g., where Abigail is taller than Bronia, there are two slots in the relation Taller Than such that Abigail fills the first slot and Bronia fills the second. This crude st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Philosophia Vol. 49; no. 1; pp. 17 - 36
Main Author: Effingham, Nikk
Format: Article
Published: Springer Nature Mar2021
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
Description
Summary:'Instantiation-directed slot theorists' believe that properties/relations have slots which are filled by their instances/relata e.g., where Abigail is taller than Bronia, there are two slots in the relation Taller Than such that Abigail fills the first slot and Bronia fills the second. This crude statement of the theory runs into 'The Problem of Filling', whereby a natural understanding of the relation between slots, filling, and instantiation leads to absurd results. This paper examines a variety of solutions to that problem, one of which is an extension of slot theory that adds an additional category of entities, 'slotites'.