Konkreetsel

Konkreetsel is a term used in some debates in philosophy of language and ontology to denote the smallest unit of concrete reality that can be perceived or observed. There is no single, widely accepted definition, and the term is not standard across disciplines. Broadly, konkreetsels are intended to ground referential content in tangible, spatio-temporal particulars rather than in abstract properties or universalities.

In semantics, konkreetsels are sometimes described as the concrete particulars that a sentence or description commits one to refer to, such as a specific apple on a given table at a specific moment. In ontology, they are contrasted with universals or abstractions and may be treated as the actual existing instances that instantiate properties.

Usage varies, and some critics argue that the term adds little over well-established notions such as object, particular, token, or individual. They caution that without clear criteria, it can be ambiguous and difficult to apply across domains.

See also: particular, object, token, referent, abstraction, ontology.