See also:NOMINALISM (from See also:Lat. nomen, name)
, the name of one of the two See also:main tendencies of See also:medieval See also:philosophy, the other being See also:Realism
.
The controversy between nominalists and realists arose from a passage in Boethius' See also:translation of See also:Porphyry's Introduction to the Categories of See also:Aristotle, which propounded the problem of genera and See also:species, (I) as to whether they subsist in themselves or only in the mind; (2) whether, if subsistent, they are corporeal or incorporeal; and (3) whether separated from sensible things or placed in them
.
The Realists held that universals alone have substantial reality, existing ante res; the Nominalists that universals are See also:mere names invented to See also:express the qualities of particular things and existing See also:post res; while the Conceptualists, mediating between the two extremes, held that universals are concepts which exist in our minds and express real similarities in things themselves
.
Though a strong realist tendency is evident in the See also:system of See also:Erigena (9th See also:century), the controversy was not definitely started till the rrth century: it lasted till the See also:middle of the 12th, when the first See also:period of scholastic philosophy ends
.
Under an See also:appearance of much vain subtlety the controversy about universals involved issues of the greatest speculative and See also:practical importance: realism represented a spiritual, See also:nominalism an See also:anti-spiritual, view of the See also:world; while realism was evidently favourable, and nominalism unfavourable, to the teaching of the See also:- CHURCH
- CHURCH (according to most authorities derived from the Gr. Kvpcaxov [&wµa], " the Lord's [house]," and common to many Teutonic, Slavonic and other languages under various forms—Scottish kirk, Ger. Kirche, Swed. kirka, Dan. kirke, Russ. tserkov, Buig. cerk
- CHURCH, FREDERICK EDWIN (1826-1900)
- CHURCH, GEORGE EARL (1835–1910)
- CHURCH, RICHARD WILLIAM (1815–189o)
- CHURCH, SIR RICHARD (1784–1873)
Church on the dogmas of the Trinity and the See also:Eucharist
.
Nominalism was a See also:doctrine of sceptics and suspected heretics, such as Berengar of See also:Tours and See also:Roscellinus
.
Even See also:Abelard's mediating doctrine of See also:conceptualism (q.v.) was sufficiently near to See also:obnoxious ideas to involve him in lifelong persecution
.
The principles of the See also:great orthodox philosophers of the later scholastic period which begins in the 13th century, Albertus See also:Magnus and See also:- THOMAS
- THOMAS (c. 1654-1720)
- THOMAS (d. 110o)
- THOMAS, ARTHUR GORING (1850-1892)
- THOMAS, CHARLES LOUIS AMBROISE (1811-1896)
- THOMAS, GEORGE (c. 1756-1802)
- THOMAS, GEORGE HENRY (1816-187o)
- THOMAS, ISAIAH (1749-1831)
- THOMAS, PIERRE (1634-1698)
- THOMAS, SIDNEY GILCHRIST (1850-1885)
- THOMAS, ST
- THOMAS, THEODORE (1835-1905)
- THOMAS, WILLIAM (d. 1554)
Thomas See also:Aquinas, were those of moderate realism
.
When nominalism was revived in the 14th century by the See also:English Franciscan, 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:Occam, it gave See also:evidence of a new tendency in thought, a distrust of abstractions and an impulse towards See also:direct observation and inductive See also:research, a tendency which had its fulfilment in the scientific See also:movement of the See also:Renaissance
.
Occam's dictum " Entia non multiplicanda sunt praeter necessitatem " was inspired by a spirit similar to that of See also:- BACON
- BACON (through the O. Fr. bacon, Low Lat. baco, from a Teutonic word cognate with " back," e.g. O. H. Ger. pacho, M. H. Ger. backe, buttock, flitch of bacon)
- BACON, FRANCIS (BARON VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST ALBANS) (1561-1626)
- BACON, JOHN (1740–1799)
- BACON, LEONARD (1802–1881)
- BACON, ROGER (c. 1214-c. 1294)
- BACON, SIR NICHOLAS (1509-1579)
Bacon
.
Though nominalism is properly a medieval theory, the tendency has passed over into See also:modern philosophy: the See also:term " nominalist " is often applied to thinkers of the empirical, sensationalist school, of whom J
.
S
.
See also:- MILL
- MILL (O. Eng. mylen, later myln, or miln, adapted from the late Lat. molina, cf. Fr. moulin, from Lat. mola, a mill, molere, to grind; from the same root, mol, is derived " meal;" the word appears in other Teutonic languages, cf. Du. molen, Ger. muhle)
- MILL, JAMES (1773-1836)
- MILL, JOHN (c. 1645–1707)
- MILL, JOHN STUART (1806-1873)
Mill may be taken as the See also:chief representative
.
(H
.
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