  Wittgenstein famously asserted that the world is the totality of  facts, not of things (ibid., §1.1). The  combinatorialist spells out Wittgenstein's aphorism explicitly in  terms of an ontology of objects (a.k.a., particulars), universals  (a.k.a., properties and relations), and facts. Facts are either  atomic or molecular. Every atomic fact — Sachverhalt, in the language of the Tractatus — is  “constituted” by an n-place relation (= property,  for n=1) and n objects that stand in, or  exemplify, that relation. Thus, for example, suppose that  John is 1.8 meters tall. Then, in addition to John and the property  being 1.8 meters tall, there is for the combinatorialist the  atomic fact of John's exemplifying that property. More generally,  atomic facts exist according to the following principle: 