PREDICATES AND PROPERTIES AN EXAMINATION OF P.K. SEN’S THEORY OF UNIVERSALS FRASER MACBRIDE “Properties and Predicates”, in Universals, Concepts, and Qualities, edited by A. Chakrabarti and P.F. Strawson, (Ashgate, 2006), pp. 67-90. I How many universals are there? The answer to this question will depend (in part) upon the extent to which universals correspond to predicates. If there are universals that correspond to every possible predicate then there are abundantly many universals. But if there are only universals that correspond to some privileged minority of predicates then universals are sparse indeed. Theories of universals may accordingly be classified as more or less abundant or sparse depending upon the extent to which universals are said by those theories to correspond to predicates. Pranab Kumar Sen thought long and hard about universals. Reflecting upon “the great work done by logicians during the last one hundred year” he arrived at a judiciously abundant conception of universals. Comparison with Armstrong’s sparse theory of universals throws the broad outlines of this conception into relief. Armstrong’s theory emerges from an empiricist tradition. Recast in twentieth century terms this tradition demands that we rely upon the a posteriori investigation of physicists to settle what universals exist. The universals so revealedArmstrong claimsare contingent, exist only if they are actually instantiated, and are identical just in case they confer the same causal or nomological powers upon their instances (Armstrong 1997). From this point of view universals correspond only to the predicates of the ideal language of final, total science (a language that remains to be spoken, if it ever will). By contrast, Sen’s theory of universals emerges from a rationalist tradition, a tradition according to which a priori reflection suffices to establish what universals exist. From this point of view universals are the meanings of simple predicates both actual and possible whether of a scientific language or no. The universals so revealedSen