Ideas of Peter Abelard, by Theme

[French, 1079 - 1142, Born at Nantes. Castrated for affair with Heloise in 1118. At the University of Paris. Work condemned in 1121 and 1140.]

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4. Formal Logic / G. Formal Mereology / 1. Mereology
Abelard's mereology involves privileged and natural divisions, and principal parts [King,P]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / b. Nominalism about universals
Abelard was an irrealist about virtually everything apart from concrete individuals [King,P]
If 'animal' is wholly present in Socrates and an ass, then 'animal' is rational and irrational [King,P]
8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 3. Predicate Nominalism
Only words can be 'predicated of many'; the universality is just in its mode of signifying [Panaccio]
10. Modality / A. Necessity / 4. De re / De dicto modality
The de dicto-de re modality distinction dates back to Abelard [Orenstein]
18. Thought / E. Abstraction / 8. Abstractionism Critique
Abelard's problem is the purely singular aspects of things won't account for abstraction [Panaccio]
19. Language / C. Assigning Meanings / 3. Predicates
Nothing external can truly be predicated of an object [Panaccio]
26. Natural Theory / B. Natural Kinds / 7. Critique of Kinds
Natural kinds are not special; they are just well-defined resemblance collections [King,P]