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Single Idea 11097

[filed under theme 8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 6. Mereological Nominalism ]

Full Idea

Red is the largest red thing in the universe - the scattered total thing whose parts are all the red things.

Gist of Idea

Red is the largest red thing in the universe

Source

Willard Quine (Identity, Ostension, and Hypostasis [1950], 3)

Book Ref

Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.72

The 5 ideas with the same theme [universals are wholes, though found in parts]:

11094 'Red' is a single concrete object in space-time; 'red' and 'drop' are parts of a red drop [Quine]
11097 Red is the largest red thing in the universe [Quine]
4437 'Mereological Nominalism' sees whiteness as a huge white object consisting of all the white things [Armstrong]
4438 'Mereological Nominalism' may work for whiteness, but it doesn't seem to work for squareness [Armstrong]
10173 A nominalist might avoid abstract objects by just appealing to mereological sums [Reck/Price]