The CEU Department of Philosophy cordially invites you to a talk

(as part of its Departmental Colloquium series)

by

Fraser MacBride (University of Cambridge)

on

"Trope Neglect: The Moore‑Stout Debate"

Tuesday, 31 January, 2012, 5.30 PM, Zrinyi 14, Room 412

ABSTRACT

In this paper I aim to come to an understanding of  how one trope proselyte, G.F. Stout, and another apostate, G.E. Moore, contrived to talk past one another in a famous exchange in Durham in July 1923 ("Are The Characteristics of Particular Things Universal of Particular?"). The result was to mislead a generation of British philosophers, leading to their subsequent neglect of tropes (aka abstract particulars, moments etc). I suggest that the failure of Stout and Moore to communicate arose from a deeper disagreement, —that they failed to make explicit—, about the contents of perceptual experience.