Metaphysics · The status of universals

Nominalism

Particular things need not share a further entity called a universal.

What it claims

Nominalism about universals denies that a single repeatable property is literally shared by distinct particulars. Two apples can both be red without one universal, redness, being wholly present in both. Predicate nominalism appeals to the application of a common predicate; resemblance nominalism to similarities between particulars; class nominalism to classes of things.

Nearby positions

Key thinkers

William of Ockham · Nelson Goodman · W. V. O. Quine · David Lewis