Helmut, List: Peirce had a tendency, especially late in his life, to label any philosophical stance with which he disagreed as "nominalistic." However, my understanding is that the fundamental issue was (and presumably still is) whether there are any real generals--or as Peirce once put it, any real continua. This includes both qualities (1ns) and habits (3ns); i.e., both "may-bes" and "would-bes." Peirce was especially concerned about any approach that would posit something as real yet incognizable, or as inexplicable; he saw both of these moves as blocking the way of inquiry. If all objects of cognition are general, but no generals are real, then we can have no knowledge of anything real. If there are no real laws of nature, then predictable regularities are just brute facts.
Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Mon, Jan 23, 2017 at 1:27 PM, Helmut Raulien <h.raul...@gmx.de> wrote: > Jon, Kirstima, List, > I am not clear about (besides many others) the term "Nominalism", and why > everybody does not like nominalism. Ockham thougt, that universals do not > have an extra-mental substance. I think it is ok. to guess so, if I think, > that the universe has a mind. So universals are not extra-mental, because > they are part of the universe´s mind, and had been so even before there > were organisms. So my question is: Is nominalism only then a stupid thing, > if the nominalist believes that the universe is inanimate except for the > organisms (who have not been there from the start), but if you believe that > the universe itself is an organism (pantheism) or part of an organism > (panentheism), then nominalism would make sense? > Best, > Helmut >
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