14 ideas
| 10801 | Either reference really matters, or we don't need to replace it with substitutions [Quine] |
| 4483 | If abstract terms are sets of tropes, 'being a unicorn' and 'being a griffin' turn out identical [Loux] |
| 4481 | Austere nominalists insist that the realist's universals lack the requisite independent identifiability [Loux] |
| 4477 | Universals come in hierarchies of generality [Loux] |
| 4482 | Austere nominalism has to take a host of things (like being red, or human) as primitive [Loux] |
| 4478 | Nominalism needs to account for abstract singular terms like 'circularity'. [Loux] |
| 4480 | Times and places are identified by objects, so cannot be used in a theory of object-identity [Loux] |
| 17499 | Theoretical models can represent, by mapping onto the data-models [Portides] |
| 17498 | In the 'received view' models are formal; the 'semantic view' emphasises representation [Portides, by PG] |
| 17501 | Representational success in models depends on success of their explanations [Portides] |
| 17502 | The best model of the atomic nucleus is the one which explains the most results [Portides] |
| 17496 | 'Model' belongs in a family of concepts, with representation, idealisation and abstraction [Portides] |
| 17497 | Models are theory-driven, or phenomenological (more empirical and specific) [Portides] |
| 17500 | General theories may be too abstract to actually explain the mechanisms [Portides] |