Single Idea 4029

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / B. Properties / 12. Denial of Properties]

Full Idea

Nominalists ask why we should postulate properties at all.

Clarification

Nominalists see language as arbitrary, rather than being fixed by reality

Gist of Idea

Nominalists ask why we should postulate properties at all

Source

DH Mellor / A Oliver (Introduction to 'Properties' [1997], §3)

Book Reference

'Properties', ed/tr. Mellor,D.H. /Oliver,A [OUP 1997], p.4


A Reaction

Objects might be grasped without language, but events cannot be understood, and explanations of events seem inconceivable without properties (implying that they are essentially causal).