Amazing how "little" the encyclopedists actually know or understand.....the fellow below, might have his "heart" in the right place but his understanding of actual philosophical schools or directions of thought is all his own.. i.e., made up by him.... Plato.. probably the prototypical IDEALIST.... must be turning in his grave at being called a "REALIST"....and his rendition or characterization of Nominalism... smacks a bit of Phenomenology.... Anyway....what would you "folks" say that ontology consists of?......Personally... I like to think of "ontology" as the consideration or investigation into differences between.... Fact (ontic) and Fancy (Wonder-Land)....I like to restrict "facts" to actual "hard" physical references....On the other hand, the ideas and gushy emotional sensations (concepts), well.... that's where Wonder-Land "can" reside.....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology.... Some philosophers, notably of the Platonic school<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonism>, contend that all nouns (including abstract nouns<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstract_noun>) refer to existent entities. Other philosophers contend that nouns do not always name entities, but that some provide a kind of shorthand for reference to a collection of either objects<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_%28philosophy%29>or events <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_%28philosophy%29>. In this latter view, *mind <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind>*, instead of referring to an entity, refers to a collection of *mental events*experienced by a person; *society <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society>* refers to a collection of persons with some shared characteristics, and *geometry<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometry> * refers to a collection of a specific kind of intellectual activity.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology#cite_note-1>Between these poles of realism <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platonic_realism> and nominalism<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominalism>, there are also a variety of other positions<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderate_realism>; but any ontology must give an account of which words refer to entities, which do not, why, and what categories result. When one applies this process to nouns such as *electrons <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron>*, *energy <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy>*, *contract<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract> *, *happiness <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happiness>*, *space<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space> *, *time <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time>*, *truth<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth> *, *causality <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causality>*, and *God<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God> *, ontology becomes fundamental to many branches of philosophy.[*citation needed <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed>*].. Anyway.... -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Epistemology" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/epistemology/-/8ZzKo5T_vIsJ. To post to this group, send email to epistemology@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to epistemology+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/epistemology?hl=en.
