ABSTRACT
The classical, or standard, theory is the Substance-attribute theory: It is natural to distinguish a thing, an individual, a token, from any particular properties that the thing happens to have. There can be epistemological problems associated with a substance-attribute view. Notoriously these were raised by John Locke. He spoke of the factor of particularity in things, as opposed to their properties, as their substance, or substratum. A contemporary philosopher who accepts a Lockean view is C. B. Martin. In his "Substance Substantiated" he accepts a substance-attribute view of objects. Robert Adams has discovered a very beautiful argument for the possibility of the exact repetition of numerically identical cycles. It may be called "the argument from almost indiscernible cycles." David Lewis has pointed out that one could bring a new version of the Adams argument against this contingency position. These are the difficulties for position that flow from the necessity to uphold certain versions of the Identity of Indiscemibles.
