Talk:Nominalism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is within the scope of the WikiProject Philosophy, which collaborates on articles related to philosophy. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details. | ||||||||||||||||
| Start | This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale. | ||||||||||||||||
| Low | This article has been rated as low-importance on the importance scale. | ||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2007) |
This entry is not helpful at all. I thought it might be a better idea to at least begin with the definition of the term in semi-official language, as the "definition" previously offered seems to me to already prefigure critiques of nominalism, and the realist position. I don't really think of nominalism as being "anti-realism," but I am not as well versed in the field as some others. I recognize that the intro is partly redundant now, and look forward to someone else helping to address the problem this article presents. Sorry. --May23rd2007 09:49, 6 August 2006 (UTC)
I believe a good link would be to Prototype Theory, because I believe it may be the opposite of this theory. -summer9081 6/5/06
There are numerous grammatical errors on this page... 12 March 2006
And editorial errors. For example, this:
"Some modern Arabic philosophers have claimed in their studies about the History of Islamic philosophy that realist universals and the Metaphysics related to this Realism school of Philosophy has formed problem to be compatible with the Islamic worldview, and through trying to solve this problem they develop the concept of nominalist universal."
- has formed problem
Joaquin 6 May 6
This article should give a more thorough explaination of nominalism as an actual system rather than as small pieces with immediate objections from realist thinkers. Objections should be set aside perhaps until the entire view complete with supporting reasons of its historical proponents has been established. As it is, the article has considerable bias against the nominalist position and makes a strawman out of it. (Would truth need such considerable defense if what wasn't true was expounded upon so clearly that it's contraditions were manifest?) Also, I think the use of technical language is taken too far here without adequate introduction to it. Instead of sounding academic, it has the opposite effect. --Antireconciler 22 January 2006
1 query on the "Moderate Realist" position. Could anyone please inform me of examples of thinkers who have published on this? Is this view simply property realism (as opposed to substance realism)? Thanks. --TableUser 01:54, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
Under Varieties of Nominalism: What is the meaning or intended meaning of the sentence... "However, the realist will object that what the predicate applies to." --ELApro 13 April 2005
I too am unhappy with this article. I would frame my unhappiness as being with the article's exclusive focus on nominalism as a debate within analytic metaphysics, rather than treating its long history going back to the Greeks. I think this article would be an excellent section of an article on nominalism, but at present totally misrepresents the term.--XmarkX 16:06, 10 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Zenter writes: I'm concerned that this article (1) has no sources and (2) compares nominalism only with realism. For the first point, I have no solution. For the second, I think it is important to ALSO compare with nihilism, which denies universals and also the instantiation. Nominalism is a middle path because all things are defined "in relation to," rather than on their own (nihilism) or in reference to a universal (realism). Which leads to point (3) Nominalism is also derided (unjustly, I think) because of its "in realtion to" -ness, and is pejoratively called "relativism" as in "moral relativism." Before I add anything to the article, I would first love a discussion, and second would want to compile some sources. Thanks! -Zenter 01:44, 25 Jan 2005 (UTC)
To whom it may concern: I'm in the middle of a complete re-write of the problem of universals article. The new approach will be almost entirely historical, beginning with Heraclitus and moving forward to Roger Penrose's revival of platonism as to mathematical entity. I expect there won't be much of an overlap with the ahistorical analytical discussion here. A link to that discussion will be appreciated, but the "overlap" notice won't be necessary. Feel free to check it out and see if you like what I've been doing. --Christofurio 12:36, Sep 1, 2004 (UTC)
- what
Contents |
[edit] Expansion
Needs to be greatly expanded upon. I don't even know where one would start.
One place to start would be to point out that nominalism usually refers to a position in Medieval Scholastic debates and is much less frequently used in contemporary philosophy (which refers to a similar position as 'anti-realism'). Reading this article - which is frankly in need of much work - one gets the impression that nominalism is mostly a position in contemporary philosophy. The person usually credited with starting the nominalist line of thought is Ockham in the late 14th century (dates to be verified) but Abelard in the 1200's had already presented many positions that could be fairly characterized as nominalist. The (more or less) contemporary philosopher who probably would have described himself as a nominalist is WVO Quine (he in any case characterized a theory of universals that he characterized as nominalist).
[edit] Opening with a dictionary definition
Aaaargh! Don't! Adambisset 14:02, 8 September 2006 (UTC) Bold text
In the section on resemblance nominalism, the article states: "This betrays the spirit of nominalism." This statement seems highly biased and should be justified or removed.
[edit] examples
Can someone include some examples? I think that would be helpful to illustrate the point.--Shadowdrak 10:31, 17 June 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Dennett query
Philosophers who delve deeply into the workings of the human brain, such as Daniel Dennett, reject the idea that there is some "greenness" in the real world, only circumstances that cause the brain to react with the judgment "green."
IIRC Dennett's objection is specifcially to phenomenal properties or qualia. I don't think he doubts the mind-independent existence of massiveness or acidity. 1Z (talk) 23:14, 19 March 2008 (UTC)
