See also:

• CONCEPTUALISM (from " Concept ")

CONCEPTUALISM (from " Concept ")  , in See also:

• PHILOSOPHY (Gr. gthos, fond of, and vo4 (a, wisdom)

philosophy, a See also:

• TERM

term applied by See also:

• MODERN

modern writers to a scholastic theory of the nature of universals, to distinguish it from the two extremes of See also:

• NOMINALISM (from Lat. nomen, name)

Nominalism and See also:

• REALISM (from Low Lat. realis, appertaining to res, things, as opposed to ideas and imaginations)

Realism . The scholastic philosophers took up the old See also:

• GREEK
• GREEK, ETRUSCAN AND

Greek problem as to the nature of true reality—whether the See also:

• GENERAL
• GENERAL (Lat. generalis, of or relating to a genus, kind or class)

general See also:

• IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea or the particular See also:

• OBJECT

object is more truly real . Between Realism which asserts that the genus is more real than the See also:

• SPECIES

species, and that particulars have no reality, and Nominalism according to which genus and species are merely names (nomina, flatus vocis), See also:

• CONCEPTUALISM (from " Concept ")

Conceptualism takes a mean position . The conceptualist holds that universals have a real existence, but only in the mind, as the concepts which unite the individual things: e.g. there is in the mind a general notion or idea of boats, by reference to which the mind can decide whether a given object is, or is not, a See also:

• BOAT (0. Eng. bdt; the true etymological connexion with Dutch and Ger. boot, Fr. bateau, Ital. battello presents great difficulties; Celtic forms are from O. Eng.)

boat . On the one See also:

• HAND
• HAND (a word common to Teutonic languages; cf. Ger. Hand, Goth. handus)
• HAND, FERDINAND GOTTHELF (1786-185r)

hand " boat " is something more than a See also:

• MERE
• MERE, ADALBERT (1838-1909)

mere See also:

• SOUND
• SOUND, THE (Danish Oresund)

sound with a purely arbitrary conventional significance; on the other it has, apart from particular things to which it applies, no reality; its reality is purely abstract or conceptual . This theory was enunciated by See also:

• ABELARD, PETER (1079-1142)

Abelard in opposition to See also:

• ROSCELLINUS (RUCELINrus, or ROUSSELIN) (c. 1050–c. 1122)

Roscellinus (nominalist) and See also:

• WILLIAM
• WILLIAM (1143-1214)
• WILLIAM (1227-1256)
• WILLIAM (1J33-1584)
• WILLIAM (A.S. Wilhelm, O. Norse Vilhidlmr; O. H. Ger. Willahelm, Willahalm, M. H. Ger. Willehelm, Willehalm, Mod.Ger. Wilhelm; Du. Willem; O. Fr. Villalme, Mod. Fr. Guillaume; from " will," Goth. vilja, and " helm," Goth. hilms, Old Norse hidlmr, meaning
• WILLIAM (c. 1130-C. 1190)
• WILLIAM, 13TH

William of See also:

• CHAMPEAUX, WILLIAM OF [GULIELMUS CAMPELLENSIS] (C. 1070-1121)

Champeaux (realist) . He held that it is only by becoming a predicate that the class-notion or general term acquires reality . Thus similarity (conformitas) is observed to exist between a number of See also:

• OBJECTS

objects in respect of a particular quality or qualities . This quality becomes real as a See also:

• MENTAL

mental concept when it is predicated of all the objects possessing it (" quod de pluribus natum est praedicari ") . Hence Abelard's theory is alternatively known as Sermonism (sermo, " predicate ") . His statement of this position oscillates markedly, inclining sometimes towards the nominalist, some-times towards the realist statement, using' the arguments of the one against the other . Hence he is described by some as a realist, by others as a nominalist .

When he comes to explain that See also:

• OBJECTIVE, or OBJECT GLASS

objective similarity in things which is represented by the class-concept or general term, he adopts the theological Platonic view that the ideas which are the archetypes of the qualities exist in the mind of See also:

• GOD

God . They are, therefore, ante rem, in re and See also:

• POST

post rem, or, as See also:

• AVICENNA

Avicenna stated it, universalia ante multiplicitatem, in multiplicitate, post multiplicitatem .