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3 - Collectionist theories of substance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2009

Joshua Hoffman  and
Gary S. Rosenkrantz
Joshua Hoffman
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Gary S. Rosenkrantz
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Greensboro
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Summary

Bundle: A collection of things bound or otherwise fastened together; a bunch; a package, parcel.

“Bundle” Oxford English Dictionary (1971)

The former recited particulars, howsoever improperly… bundled up together.

F. Greville The Life of the Renowned Sir Philip Sidney 235 (1628)

WHAT IS A COLLECTIONIST THEORY OF SUBSTANCE?

The idea of a substance is nothing but a collection of simple ideas that are united by the imagination and have a particular name assigned them by which we are able to recall, either to ourselves or to others, that collection.

D. Hume A Treatise of Human Nature I. iv. 6 (1739–1740)

A distinction needs to be drawn between two sorts of collectionist theories about substance. The eliminative collectionist theory holds that there are no substances. Instead, there are collections of entities of another sort, which collections are not to be identified with substances. This view usually maintains that what are taken to be substances are really collections of nonsubstances. A proponent of this view seems to be the Hume of the Treatise. Hume is the sort of eliminationist who thinks that there is no intelligible concept of substance, but it is possible to be an eliminationist and also hold that the concept of substance is a coherent one.

A second kind of collectionist theory identifies substances with collections of nonsubstances. Such a theory attempts to provide a philosophical analysis of the concept of an individual substance as ordinarily understood in terms of a collection of this kind.

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Substance among Other Categories , pp. 58 - 88
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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