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Full Idea
Nominalists tend to deny the existence of abstract objects since, given their purported nature (non-causal), we can have no reason to believe in their existence.
Gist of Idea
Nominalists deny abstract objects, because we can have no reason to believe in their existence
Source
E.J. Lowe (A Survey of Metaphysics [2002], p.372)
Book Ref
Lowe,E.J.: 'A Survey of Metaphysics' [OUP 2002], p.372
A Reaction
A good point. Aristotle worried about the causal inadequacy of the Forms. My mind can conceive of a 'thing' with no causal powers, just sitting there.
| 5105 | The incommensurability of the diagonal always exists, and so it is not in time [Aristotle] |
| 8910 | General and universal are not real entities, but useful inventions of the mind, concerning words or ideas [Locke] |
| 6717 | Abstract ideas are impossible [Berkeley] |
| 7700 | We can't think about the abstract idea of triangles, but only of particular triangles [Hume] |
| 8911 | If abstracta are non-mental, quarks are abstracta, and yet chess and God's thoughts are mental [Rosen on Frege] |
| 8634 | The equator is imaginary, but not fictitious; thought is needed to recognise it [Frege] |
| 8960 | Internal questions about abstractions are trivial, and external ones deeply problematic [Carnap, by Szabó] |
| 10136 | Points in Euclidean space are abstract objects, but not introduced by abstraction [Fine,K] |
| 10144 | Postulationism says avoid abstract objects by giving procedures that produce truth [Fine,K] |
| 10145 | Abstracts cannot be identified with sets [Fine,K] |
| 12212 | Just as we introduced complex numbers, so we introduced sums and temporal parts [Fine,K] |
| 4239 | Nominalists deny abstract objects, because we can have no reason to believe in their existence [Lowe] |
| 14592 | Some abstract things have a beginning and end, so may exist in time (though not space) [Swoyer] |