nominalisme

Nominalisme is a philosophical position on the status of universals and abstract concepts. It holds that only particular things exist and that general terms or universals (such as “redness,” “justice,” or “beauty”) do not correspond to independent entities in reality. Instead, universals are seen as names, terms, or mental constructs we use to group together a set of individuals.

Historically, nominalism arose in opposition to medieval realism, which held that universals exist independently of minds. Early critiques are often associated with Roscellinus, who argued that terms like “man” apply to many different things without implying a shared real essence. The term “nominalism” is more fully developed in the later medieval period, especially with William of Ockham. Ockham argued that universals are merely signs or words that humans use to simplify discourse, and that no universal entity exists beyond the particulars we experience. Other medieval nominalists include John Buridan and several successors who extended the view within the scholastic tradition.

Nominalism is commonly contrasted with realism (which affirms the real existence of universals) and with conceptualism (which locates universals as mental constructs that nevertheless refer to real things). In modern philosophy, nominalist tendencies persist in debates about the existence of abstract objects, the nature of language and classification, and the status of mathematical and scientific general terms. The approach emphasizes linguistic and epistemic aspects of how we talk about the world rather than positing substantial abstract realities.