Single Idea 4443

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 3. Predicate Nominalism]

Full Idea

Quine has attempted to bypass the problem of universals by arguing for the ontological innocence of predicates, since it is the application conditions of predicates which furnish the Realists with much of their case.

Clarification

An 'ontological commitment' says that something (like universals) must exist

Gist of Idea

Quine has argued that predicates do not have any ontological commitment

Source

report of Willard Quine (On What There Is [1948]) by David M. Armstrong - Universals p.503

Book Reference

'A Companion to Metaphysics', ed/tr. Kim,Jaegwon/Sosa,Ernest [Blackwell 1995], p.503


A Reaction

Presumably this would be a claim that predicates appear to commit us to properties, but that properties are not natural features, and can be reduced to something else. Tricky..