nominalism


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Related to nominalism: conceptualism

nom·i·nal·ism

 (nŏm′ə-nə-lĭz′əm)
n. Philosophy
The doctrine holding that abstract concepts, general terms, or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names.
nom′i·nal·ist n.
nom′i·nal·is′tic adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

nominalism

(ˈnɒmɪnəˌlɪzəm)
n
(Philosophy) the philosophical theory that the variety of objects to which a single general word, such as dog, applies have nothing in common but the name. Compare conceptualism, realism
ˈnominalist n, adj
ˌnominalˈistic adj
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

nom•i•nal•ism

(ˈnɒm ə nlˌɪz əm)

n.
the philosophical doctrine that general or abstract words do not stand for objectively existing entities and that universals are no more than names assigned to them. Compare conceptualism (def. 1), realism (def. 5a).
[1830–40; < French nominalisme. See nominal]
nom′i•nal•ist, n.
nom`i•nal•is′tic, adj.
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

nominalism

Medieval Philosophy. the doctrine that abstract words or universals do not represent objectively existing entities, and that universals are only names applied to individual physical particulars that alone exist objectively. — nominalist, n., adj. — nominalistic, adj.
See also: Philosophy
-Ologies & -Isms. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

nominalism

The view that universals such as “the true” exist in name only and do not actually exist.
Dictionary of Unfamiliar Words by Diagram Group Copyright © 2008 by Diagram Visual Information Limited
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.nominalism - (philosophy) the doctrine that the various objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name
philosophy - the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics
philosophical doctrine, philosophical theory - a doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
nominalismus

nominalism

[ˈnɒmɪnəlɪzəm] N → nominalismo m
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

nominalism

n (Philos) → Nominalismus m
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007
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References in periodicals archive ?
In addition, CT is wed to nominalism, roughly the theory that only particular things exist; unlike in realism, in nominalism there are no universal, literally shareable qualities in reality.
Social Justice, Economics, and the Implications of Nominalism
Eltschinger sees these critiques as rooted in the basic Buddhist tendency toward nominalism, with its "condemnation of hypostases and reifications" and its tendency to view classes of all kinds, including social denominations, as "mere designations," as "nothing but conventions" (pp.
Caste and Buddhist Philosophy: Continuity of Some Buddhist Arguments against the Realist Interpretation of Social Denominations
While medieval scholastic philosophy considered nature to be a series of instantiations of what might be described as thoughts in the mind of a rational god, nominalism, which emerged in the 13th and 14th centuries, challenged this conception and was critical of its Aristotelian underpinnings, and eventually came to supersede it.
Secularism as monoatheism: the inverted theology of disenchantment
Hearn admirably situates the theorizing of power in metatheoretical positions such as "realism, naturalism and nominalism" (3), showing sympathies with a Weber-inspired nominalism because, "[i]t is a call to be vigilant about the fact that the language and concepts through which we do social science, which must generalize and abstract from particulars, is ever prone to misrepresenting reality" (x).
Hearn, Jonathan. Theorizing Power
I also found Popkin's hesitation between nominalism (which she ultimately adopts) and realism to be a way of placing her essay firmly in the twenty-first century.
Chekhov for the 21st Century
Some of our Supreme Court justices are suffering from a form of nominalism. Justices Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsberg both want to declare capital punishment unconstitutional (NCR, July 17-30).
Capital punishment
In The Theological Origins of Modernity, Gillespie explains in detail how the effects of philosophical nominalism played out again and again over six centuries in failed attempts at intellectual syntheses from thinkers ranging from William of Ockham and Martin Luther to Descartes, Hegel, and Kant.
Onan the Librarian: Slavoj Zizek offers smut for the smart
Nominalism is a view about the kinds of things there are in general.
A plea for concrete universals
Eagleton simplifies the debate into a question of realism versus nominalism. "Realism", as understood in philosophy or theology, presupposes the existence of a category "literature" existing outside our subjectivities.
Terry Eagleton. The Event of Literature
Occam's philosophy is called nominalism or sometimes terminism because it sought the simplest explanations that could account for phenomena.
The wisdom of a dunce
It provides a brief overview of Field's nominalisation program--which Colyvan calls the hard road to nominalism--before canvassing alternative lines of resistance, so-called 'easy roads' to nominalism. Easy road strategies are easy because they do not attempt to undertake the daunting task of stripping mathematics out of our best scientific theories.
Mark Colyvan: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mathematics
Volume 4/1 has eight sections: 15th-century nominalism open to humanism; 15th-century ethical turn to humanism; 16th-century Scholasticism, the authors; 16th-century Scholasticism, the themes; 16th-century humanists; reform: its spirituality and its morality; ethics and the Protestant Reformation; the "tough times" (Tiempos Recios) of religious intransigence.
Historia de la theologia moral. Vol. 4/1, La moral en la edad moderna (SS. XV-XVI): Humanismo y reforma. Vol. 4/2, La moral en la edad moderna (SS. XV-XVI): America; "Problem Moral."

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