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Single Idea 15402

[from 'On What There Is' by Willard Quine, in 8. Modes of Existence / E. Nominalism / 1. Nominalism / b. Nominalism about universals ]

Full Idea

There is not any entity whatever, individual or otherwise, which is named by the word 'redness'. ...That the houses and roses and sunsets are all of them red may be taken as ultimate and irreducible.

Gist of Idea

There is no entity called 'redness', and that some things are red is ultimate and irreducible

Source

Willard Quine (On What There Is [1948], p.10)

Book Reference

Quine,Willard: 'From a Logical Point of View' [Harper and Row 1963], p.10


A Reaction

This seems to invite the 'ostrich' charge (Armstrong), that there is something left over that needs explaining. If the reds are ultimate and irreducible, that seems to imply that they have no relationship at all to one another.