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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Universal Prescriptivism' and 'Metaphysics: contemporary introduction'

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8. Modes of Existence / D. Universals / 1. Universals
Universals come in hierarchies of generality [Loux]
     Full Idea: Universals come in hierarchies of generality.
     From: Michael J. Loux (Metaphysics: contemporary introduction [1998], p.24)
     A reaction: If it is possible to state facts about universals, this obviously encourages a rather Platonic approach to them, as existent things with properties. But maybe the hierarchies are conventional, not natural.
Austere nominalists insist that the realist's universals lack the requisite independent identifiability [Loux]
     Full Idea: Austere nominalists insist that the realist's universals lack the requisite independent identifiability.
     From: Michael J. Loux (Metaphysics: contemporary introduction [1998], p.60)
     A reaction: Plato's view seems to be that we don't identify universals independently. We ascend The Line, or think about the shadows in The Cave, and infer the universals from an array of particulars (by dialectic).