Interpretation of Nominalism and Its Types
Date: 2015-10-07; view: 464.
Nominalism is a metaphysical view in philosophy, the doctrine according to which abstract concepts, general terms or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names. Therefore, various objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name. In other words, only actual physical particulars are real, and universals exist only subsequent to particular things, being just verbal abstractions.
Nominalism arose in reaction to the problem of universals and in particular to Plato's solution to it, known as Platonic Realism, which holds that abstract objects like universals and Forms exist in their own right and are wholly independent of the physical world, and that particular physical objects merely exemplify or instantiate the universal. Nominalists ask exactly where this universal realm might be, and find it unusual and unlikely that there could be a single thing that exists in multiple places simultaneously.
There have been attempts to bridge the gap between Realism and Nominalism including Moderate Realism (the view that there is no separate realm where universals or universal concepts exist, but that they are located in space and time wherever they happen to be manifest) and Conceptualism (the doctrine that universals exist only within the mind and have no external or substantial reality).
The Medieval French Scholastic philosopher and theologian Roscellinus of Compiegne (1050 – 1125), a teacher of Peter Abelard, is often regarded as the founder of modern Nominalism.
William of Ockham is also considered a pioneer of Nominalism, and he argued strongly that only individuals exist (rather than supra-individual universals, essences or forms), and that universals are the products of abstraction from individuals by the human mind and have no extra-mental existence. However, his view is perhaps more accurately described as Conceptualism rather than Nominalism, holding that universals are mental concepts (which do exist, even if only in the mind) rather than merely names (i.e. words rather than existing realities).
There are several types of Nominalism.
· Predicate Nominalism takes the linguistic line that, for example, two individual cats are both cats simply because the predicate "cat" applies to both of them (although to some extent this still begs the question of what the predicate actually applies to).
· Resemblance Nominalism holds that "cat" applies to both cats because they resemble an exemplar cat (an exemplar is a model or pattern to be copied or imitated) closely enough to be classed together with it as members of its kind, or that they differ less from each other (and other cats) than they differ from other things.
· Psychological Nominalism is the view in psychology that explains psychological concepts in terms of public language use.
Ex. 8 Answer the following questions.
1. What is Nominalism in philosophy?
2. How did Nominalism arise in the history of philosophy?
3. What does Platonic Realism hold?
4. What is Nominalists' consideration about the universal realm?
5. What have there been attempts to bridge the gap between?
6. What is Moderate Realism?
7. What is Conceptualism?
8. Who is often regarded as the founder of modern Nominalism?
9. Who is William of Ockham?
10. What are the types of Nominalism?
Ex. 9 Give English equivalents to the following phrases. Use Ex.7.
- Îêðåìà ñôåðà;
- Ðåçóëüòàòè àáñòðàêö³¿;
- Äîñèòü òî÷íî ñêèäàòèñÿ;
- ²ñíóâàòè â ñèëó ñâî¿õ îñîáèñòèõ ÿêîñòåé;
- Îáãîâîðþâàòè åíåðã³éíî;
- Ó â³äïîâ³äü íà;
- Â ðàìêàõ âæèâàííÿ ãðîìàäñüêî¿ ìîâè;
- Ìàòåð³àëüíà ä³éñí³ñòü;
- ²ñíóâàòè îäíî÷àñíî â áàãàòüîõ ì³ñöÿõ;
- Íåçàëåæíå ³ñíóâàííÿ.
Ex. 10 Find synonyms in the text to the following words.
To a certain degree, in response to, within the framework of, specifically, raise a question, only, get over the gap, logical statement, obvious, oral abstractions, emerge, represent by an example.
Ex. 11 Write a plan to Ex.7 and retell the text according to it.
Ex. 12 Correct grammar mistakes in the following sentences. There may a few mistakes in one sentence.
1) Philosophy and religion have any elements in common.
2) Russell and others thinks that Resemblance Nominalism faces the resemblance regress.
3) Resemblance Nominalism do not reify resemblances.
4) Stoicism did arose in the Hellenistic period, the period after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and become the philosophical preference of many Greeks.
5) Its worth to noted, the two forms of nominalism is independent.
6) One kind of Nominalism assert that there are particular objects and that everything particular.
7) The realists about universals admits that the predicate ‘scarlet' applyes to a scarlet thing.
8) According to Modal Realism which merely possible particulars are real as actual one.
9) It has also thought that an abstract object is one that fail to exemplify existence, or an object that could do exist but do not.
Ex. 13 Put the paragraphs in a logically correct order. Choose the headline to the text below.
ABELARD'S THEORY OF UNIVERSALS
ABELARD'S LIFE AND DOCTRINE OF NOMINALISM
ABELARD'S POSITION ON UNIVERSALS
Most renowned of all the events of Abelard's life is his seduction of Héloise, niece of Canon Fulbert of Notre Dame, when he was 35 years old. When their child was born they married secretly. Her uncle was furious at Abelard. Héloise's brothers broke into his room at night and castrated him. Subsequently Héloise became a nun and Abelard a monk in an abbey outside of Paris.
For Abelard, universals such as beauty and goodness and rectangularity exist a) in the understanding alone, are b) immaterial, and c) are separate from sensible objects. This alone was controversial, since it implied that universals existed mentally, but not in any objective sense. In particular, Abelard maintained that universals existed “nominally,” or in name only.
Abelard engaged in the debate about universals, one of the abiding controversies of the time. A universal, such as “redness,” or “squareness,” is something that is common to many particular things. The problem about universals is trying to figure out what kind of realities they are. In other words, what is their metaphysical status? What relationship do universals such as “goodness” or “sweetness” have to reality?
Abelard (1079–1142) was born near Nantes, France, into a noble Parisian family. He studied philosophy and theology and soon achieved a reputation as a contentious and brilliant student. It was his nature to be controversial: he challenged ideas and people, including his professors. After taking courses, he would go on to teach the same subject in competition with his teachers.
The scandal followed him, however. His book On the Divine Unity and Trinity was condemned and burned at the ecclesiastical council at Soissons in 1121. Twenty years later he was summoned to a council at Sens and was prosecuted for heresy because of his Introduction to Theology. It was his position on universals, known as nominalism, that led him to be condemned in 1140, and he died on his way to Rome to defend himself.
Ex. 14 Find an odd word in each line, rewrite the text with your corrections and render its main core.
One of the main the intellectual preoccupations of medieval theologians and philosophers was the distinction between a realism and nominalism, also known in the history of ideas as well the “quarrel of universals.” The writings of Porphyry (c.232–305 c.) and Boethius (480–c.526), based also on the ten categories of Aristotle and some excerpts besides from Plato, were the primary references for all to these discussions.
At the beginning of the twelfth century, this debate was nearly represented primarily by Roscelin, the one nominalist, and Guillaume de Champeaux, the realist. The Aristotelian nominalists believed that only in the substantial existence of individuals; by universal ideas were considered to be only the results of his mental processes. For the Platonist realists, universal ideas had intrinsic, in substantial reality, and individuals were only accidents. Pierre Abélard he intervened in this debate and proposed a theoretical compromise, known as conceptualism that it was considered a variety of realism or nominalism depending upon the beliefs of his the adversary. Abélard claimed that the whole question of universals pertained from to the relationship between words and things across through the intellections that words generate. He extended the dispute about the same distinction between species and genres to the domain of signification and thus mostly became one of the precursors of modern semiotics. Abélard's argument was to presented in the Logica ingredientibus (Logic for Beginners, 1973).
Ex. 15. Prepare an oral report about famous Nominalists. Be ready to speak about them at your classes.
Ex. 16 Solve the crossword puzzle. New active words (Ex. 2) are its clues.
ACROSS:
3. to show by example; to serve as an example of;
8. a field of interest, study;
9. improbable; doubtful;
11. occurring, existing, or operating at the same time;
12. to represent by an instance;
14. only; nothing more than;
15. occurring after;
16. having or involving more than one part.
DOWN:
1. to suggest that a question needs to be asked;
2. to look like or be similar to someone or something;
4. especially, specifically;
5. an individual object, as contrasted with a universal;
6. to use something such as a method, idea, or law in a particular situation, activity, or process;
7. an expression that is derived from a sentence by the deletion of a name;
10. easily noticed or perceived; obvious;
12. mutually held or used with another or others;
13. to come into being; originate.
IDIOMS & PROVERBS
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