nominalist
Rejects abstract categories
A nominalist holds that abstract concepts, universals, and categories exist only as names or mental constructs, not as independent realities.
In medieval philosophy, nominalists argued that only particular things exist—"redness" is just a word we apply to red things, not a thing itself.
The position opposes realism, which grants existence to universals.
More loosely, nominalist describes anyone skeptical of abstract categories: She took a nominalist view of psychiatric diagnoses, seeing them as convenient labels rather than real conditions.
Properties holding across all
- particularsIndividual facts or details
- realismAccepting things as they are
- PlatonismPhilosophy emphasizing ideal Forms
- metaphysicsPhilosophy of existence's nature
ontology · conceptualism · properties · predicates · individuation · instantiation · categories · abstraction
Assigning a label
- labelsIdentifying markers attached to items
- classificationSystematic grouping by traits
- terminologySubject-specific vocabulary
- semanticsStudy of linguistic meaning
reference · signifier · meaning · definition · categorization · language · description · designation
Disposition toward doubt
- empiricismKnowledge through observation
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- subjectivismBelief truth is personal
- constructivismActive knowledge-building theory
conventionalism · instrumentalism · pragmatism · critique · questioning · arbitrary · social construction · knowledge
universals
Properties holding across all
- particularsIndividual facts or details
- realismAccepting things as they are
- PlatonismPhilosophy emphasizing ideal Forms
metaphysics · ontology · conceptualism · properties · predicates · individuation · instantiation · categories · abstraction · generalization
naming
Assigning a label
- labelsIdentifying markers attached to items
- classificationSystematic grouping by traits
- terminologySubject-specific vocabulary
semantics · reference · signifier · meaning · definition · categorization · language · description · designation · lexical
skepticism
Disposition toward doubt
- empiricismKnowledge through observation
- relativismContext-dependent truth doctrine
- subjectivismBelief truth is personal
constructivism · conventionalism · instrumentalism · pragmatism · critique · questioning · arbitrary · social construction · knowledge · justification
- thinkersthinkers, thinker, philosophers, philosopher, Aristotle
- philosophersAristotle, Plato, Socrates, Kant, Descartes
- freethinkersfreethinker, freethinkers, secularists, rationalist, rationalists
nominalistrealist
One accepting hard truths
Platonist · universalist · essentialist · idealist · Pythagorean