more from Willard Quine

Single Idea 8504

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 5. Class Nominalism]

Full Idea

Quine is not an 'ostrich', because his strategy for dealing with property sentences is clear enough: all talk of attributes is to be dispensed with in favour of talk of eternal open sentences or talk of classes.

Gist of Idea

Quine aims to deal with properties by the use of eternal open sentences, or classes

Source

report of Willard Quine (Word and Object [1960], §43) by Michael Devitt - 'Ostrich Nominalism' or 'Mirage Realism'? p.100

Book Reference

'Properties', ed/tr. Mellor,D.H. /Oliver,A [OUP 1997], p.100


A Reaction

[See p.209 'Word and Object'] The proposal seems to be that a property like being-human (a category) would be dealt with by classes, and qualitative properties would be dealt with simply as predicates. I like the split, and the first half, not the second.