A Theory of Universals: Universals and Scientific Realism

by D. M. Armstrong

• ISBN13: 9780521280327
• ISBN10: 052128032X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1980-11-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is a study, in two volumes, of one of the longest-standing philosophical problems: the problem of universals. In volume I David Armstrong surveys and criticizes the main approaches and solutions to the problems that have been canvassed, rejecting the various forms of nominalism and 'Platonic' realism. In volume II he develops an important theory of his own, an objective theory of universals based not on linguistic conventions, but on the actual and potential findings of natural science. He thus reconciles a realism about qualities and relations with an empiricist epistemology. The theory allows, too, for a convincing explanation of natural laws as relations between these universals.

Table of Contents

The argument of Volume I

Predicates and Universals

Relations between predicates and universals

Rejection of disjunctive and negative universals

Acceptance of conjunctive universals

The identification of universals

Different semantic correlations between predicates and universals

Properties

Relations

The Analysis of Resemblance

The resemblance of particulars

The resemblance of universals

criticism of received accounts

The resemblance of universals

a new account

Higher-Order Universals

Higher-order properties

Higher-order relations

Conclusion

Glossary

Indices

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