Volume 151, Number 1, 1-18, DOI: 10.1007/s11098-009-9420-8

Indiscernibility and bundles in a structure

Sun Demirli

From the issue entitled "with SI: CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF ‘ASSERTION’, GUEST-EDITED BY ALEJANDRO PÉREZ CARBALLO AND PAOLO SANTORIO"

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Abstract

The bundle theory is a theory about the internal constitution of individuals. It asserts that individuals are entirely composed of universals. Typically, bundle theorists augment their theory with a constitutional approach to individuation entailing the thesis ‘identity of constituents is a sufficient ground for numerical identity’ (CIT). But then the bundle theory runs afoul of Black’s duplication case—a world containing two indiscernible spheres. Here I propose and defend a new version of the bundle theory that denies ‘CIT’, and which instead conjoins it with a structural diversity thesis, according to which being separated by distance is a sufficient ground for numerical diversity. This version accommodates Black’s world as well as the three-spheres world—a world containing three indiscernible spheres, arranged as the vertices of an equilateral triangle. In this paper, I also criticize Rodriguez-Pereyra’s alternative attempt to defend the bundle theory against Black’s case and the case of the three-spheres world.

Keywords  Bundle theory - Identity of indiscernibles - Individuation - Universals - Compresence - Structuralism - Diversity

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