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8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / c. Nominalism about abstracta

[denial of the real existence of abstract entities]

9 ideas
We renounce all abstract entities [Goodman/Quine]
Deniers of properties and relations rely on either predicates or on classes [Armstrong]
Quineans take predication about objects as basic, not reference to properties they may have [Devitt]
Philosophers keep finding unexpected objects, like models, worlds, functions, numbers, events, sets, properties [Yablo]
Nominalism needs to account for abstract singular terms like 'circularity'. [Loux]
Objections to Frege: abstracta are unknowable, non-independent, unstatable, unindividuated [Hale]
Real Nominalism is only committed to concrete particulars, word-tokens, and (possibly) sets [Macdonald,C]
Call 'nominalism' the denial of numbers, properties, relations and sets [Dorr]
Nominalists can reduce theories of properties or sets to harmless axiomatic truth theories [Halbach/Leigh]