Properties and Propositions

This book articulates and defends Fregean realism, a theory of properties based on Frege’s insight that properties are not objects, but rather the satisfaction conditions of predicates. Robert Trueman argues that this approach is the key not only to dissolving a host of longstanding metaphysical puzzles, such as Bradley’s Regress and the Problem of Universals, but also to under...

This book articulates and defends Fregean realism, a theory of properties based on Frege’s insight that properties are not objects, but rather the satisfaction conditions of predicates. Robert Trueman argues that this approach is the key not only to dissolving a host of longstanding metaphysical puzzles, such as Bradley’s Regress and the Problem of Universals, but also to understanding the relationship between states of affairs, propositions, and the truth conditions of sentences. Fregean realism, Trueman suggests, ultimately leads to a version of the identity theory of truth, the theory that true propositions are identical to obtaining states of affairs. In other words, the identity theory collapses the gap between mind and world. This book will be of interest to anyone working in logic, metaphysics, the philosophy of language or the philosophy of mind.

Robert Trueman is Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of York. He is the author of numerous articles on philosophical logic and metaphysics in journals including Philosophical Studies, Australasian Journal of Philosophy and Mind.