more from Bertrand Russell

Single Idea 5406

[catalogued under 8. Modes of Existence / D. Universals / 1. Universals]

Full Idea

The monism of Spinoza and Bradley, and the monadism of Leibniz, result, in my opinion, from an undue attention to one sort of universals, namely the sort represented by adjectives and substantives rather than by verbs and prepositions.

Clarification

'Substantives' are nouns

Gist of Idea

Confused views of reality result from thinking that only nouns and adjectives represent universals

Source

Bertrand Russell (Problems of Philosophy [1912], Ch. 9)

Book Reference

Russell,Bertrand: 'The Problems of Philosophy' [OUP 1995], p.54


A Reaction

The 'linguistic turn' of 20th century philosophy, which should be treated with caution, but I agree that if we are going to accept universals, we need a wide vision of what categories they might fall into. I would prefer an ontology without 'relations'.