ABSTRACT
The abstract-concrete distinction purports to divide reality into abstract and concrete entities. After examining several ways philosophers have sought to analyze this controversial distinction, this chapter considers whether properties are indeed abstract or concrete. The answer to this question is standardly held to depend upon one's preferred view of properties and in this survey of theoretical options regarding the abstract-concrete distinction, particular attention is paid to universal, trope, and class nominalist views. After suggesting that none of the leading accounts of the abstract-concrete distinction are especially plausible, this chapter concludes by examining the case for viewing properties as essentially abstract, regardless of their nature, and investigates the methodological role of the abstract-concrete distinction in the metaphysics of properties.
