The Nuclear Theory of Trope Bundles

The previous chapter has discussed the main alternatives for the conception of particular objects. The problems that affect theories of trope-bundles have led to the idea of ‘pregnant wholes’ originally proposed by Husserl. This chapter considers in more detail the ‘nuclear’ theory of pregnant wholes defended by Peter Simons in a series of works. The nuclear theory preserves the advantages of the ‘pregnant wholes’ and correct some of its problems. Nevertheless, the nuclear theory faces important additional complications. On the one hand, it has to face the problem of ‘substantial change’. On the other hand, nuclear bundles of tropes are built by connections of ontological dependence between tropes, but these connections violate basic requirements of irreflexivity, asymmetry and transitivity.