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- DictionaryNom·i·nal·ism/ˈnämənlˌiz(ə)m/
noun
- 1. the doctrine that universals or general ideas are mere names without any corresponding reality, and that only particular objects exist; properties, numbers, and sets are thought of as merely features of the way of considering the things that exist. Important in medieval scholastic thought, nominalism is associated particularly with William of Occam.
In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] There are at least two main versions of nominalism.
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The meaning of NOMINALISM is a theory that there are no universal essences in reality and that the mind can frame no single concept or image corresponding to any universal or general term.
nominalism, in philosophy, position taken in the dispute over universals—words that can be applied to individual things having something in common—that flourished especially in late medieval times.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Feb 11, 2008 · What is Nominalism? The word ‘Nominalism’, as used by contemporary philosophers in the Anglo-American tradition, is ambiguous. In one sense, its most traditional sense deriving from the Middle Ages, it implies the rejection of universals. In another, more modern but equally entrenched sense, it implies the rejection of abstract objects.
May 18, 2018 · nominalism in philosophy, the doctrine that universals or general ideas are mere names without any corresponding reality. Only particular objects exist, and properties, numbers, and sets are merely features of the way of considering the things that exist.
‘Nominalism’ refers to a reductionist approach to problems about the existence and nature of abstract entities; it thus stands opposed to Platonism and realism.
Nominalism is the philosophical view that abstract concepts, general terms, or universals have no independent existence but exist only as names. It also claims that various individual objects labeled by the same term have nothing in common but their name.