 The most convincing reason for thinking that nothing but the resembling tropes is needed in order to account for the phenomenon of sameness of property, is provided by (one aspect of) the nature of resemblance itself. Resemblance is an internal relation; it supervenes on whatever it relates. Once two tropes exist, therefore, so must their (degree of) resemblance. Given a ‘sparse’ ontology, only what is minimally required to make true all truths exists. Sparse ontologies can be independently justified (cf. Schaffer 2004 and Armstrong 1978). Therefore, what exists when distinct tropes resemble each other—and so what plays the role of the realist’s universal—is nothing but the resembling tropes themselves (Williams 1963: 608; Campbell 1990: 37f.; cf. also Armstrong 1989:  56).[26]