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Full Idea
On one line of thought, the question of whether universals exist seems to reduce to the question of the utility, or necessity, of using second-order rather than first-order logic.
Gist of Idea
Existence of universals may just be decided by acceptance, or not, of second-order logic
Source
Tim Maudlin (The Metaphysics within Physics [2007], 3.1)
Book Ref
Maudlin,Tim: 'The Metaphysics within Physics' [OUP 2007], p.83
A Reaction
Second-order logic quantifies over properties, where first-order logic just quantifies over objects. This is an extreme example of doing your metaphysics largely through logic. Not my approach.