REALISM, NOMINALISM, CONCEPTUALISM

These three “isms” refer to ways we understand the basis of the relationship between words and whatever it is those words do or do not signify. What gives words meaning? If I use the term “chair,” for example, I try to convey to the reader or listener that I am talking about a piece of furniture which serves the function of being sat on by one person and presumably has at least a back which distinguishes ir from a stool or bench.

UNIVERSALS

In simple language, universals are properties or qualities that can be shared by individual beings. Individuals can endure through time but can only exist in one place at the time. Individuals, however, can share qualities. In other words, qualities can exist in countless different individuals at the same time. Qualities are “repeatable” and the fact that one object that has a quality has been destroyed doesn’t mean that the quality ceases to exist. In fact, theoretically all objects that have a certain quality might be destroyed, but the quality would still continue to exist, waiting to be manifested again. An individual book and an individual t-shirt, for example, can be red, green, brown, black, blue, and so forth. Book and t-shirt can be heavy or light, old or new. Color, weight, age, etc. are all properties that can modify and be used to describe individual entities and explain their similarities and differences.

REALISM

For thousands of years philosophers have asked whether and how universals exist. Are there such entities as “redness,” “heaviness,” or “newness”? Is there such an entity as “maleness” or “humanness”? Do universals have “real” existence? Those who believe that universal have independent existence believe that they give meaning to terms used to describe something, that they are abstract, immaterial, indestructible, independent of time and space. Hence they cannot be directly observed, weighed, measured, or quantified. They cannot be scientifically examined or proven.

Plato argued that identical properties of separate individuals cannot be explained without the the universal which he called “Idea” or “ Form.” If three human beings, for example, are men, this means that there is a Form of “Maleness” that manifests itself in these three persons.

NOMINALISM

Nominalists do not accept universals. They argue that this particular human being is a man because the predicate “is male” can be correctly ascribed to him. However, the adjective “male” is no more than a string of written letters or characters or a string of phonemes. Tom, Dick, and Harry, are men because the predicate “are male” is correctly ascribed to all three. Plato’s “universals” are no more than convenient tags we use to make sense of our experience as we use words.

CONCEPTUALISM

Conceptualists (such as Abelard) consider properties or qualities not independently real, but mental constructs, i.e. concepts in human minds. Many individuals can share the same quality. Identity, difference, and resemblance can be explained by the sharing of something, but that something need not be a universal. According to this view, the individuals Tom, Dick, and Harry are male because the concept of maleness applies to all of them. The concept “maleness” is general because many diverse particulars are manifestations of that concept.