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Full Idea
Predicate nominalism is the view that what all things to which the same word applies have in common is simply our willingness to apply the same word to them.
Gist of Idea
If we apply the same word to different things, it is only because we are willing to do so
Source
report of Nelson Goodman (The Structure of Appearance [1951], Ch.6) by Cynthia Macdonald - Varieties of Things
Book Ref
Macdonald,Cynthia: 'Varieties of Things' [Blackwell 2005], p.227
A Reaction
This is Goodman's 'extreme nominalist' position. This seems also to be an anti-realist position, as it denies any 'joints' to nature (Idea 7953). It strikes me as daft. WHY are we willing to apply words in certain ways?
Related Idea
Idea 7953 Reasoning needs to cut nature accurately at the joints [Plato]
| 9920 | Two objects can apparently make up quite distinct arrangements in sets [Goodman, by Burgess/Rosen] |
| 7956 | If all and only red things were round things, we would need to specify the 'respect' of the resemblance [Goodman, by Macdonald,C] |
| 7957 | Without respects of resemblance, we would collect blue book, blue pen, red pen, red clock together [Goodman, by Macdonald,C] |
| 7952 | If we apply the same word to different things, it is only because we are willing to do so [Goodman, by Macdonald,C] |
| 15510 | Classes are a host of ethereal, platonic, pseudo entities [Goodman] |
| 10657 | The counties of Utah, and the state, and its acres, are in no way different [Goodman] |