Tag Archives: universals

GROUNDUP ONTOLOGY: A CARTESIAN PERSPECTIVE & EXEMPLIFICATIONS IN SCIENCE (pages 185-204)

Mark MALLER ABSTRACT: The first pathway toward a new conceptualist answer to the existence of universals begins with Descartes. The article is guided by a Cartesian method of starting anew in metaphysics and our knowledge of mind-dependent universals. Relevant examples and learning experiments defend and validate the pragmatic utility of conceptualism. It is past time for analytic ontology to set …

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AGAINST SENSE-DATA AS STRUCTURED UNIVERSALS (pages 359-363)

Landon D. C. ELKIND ABSTRACT: I critically discuss a new proposal for a metaphysics of sense-data. This proposal is due to Peter Forrest. Forrest argues that, if we accept Platonism about universals, sense-data are best understood as structured universals–in particular, as structured universals with temporal and spatial properties as components. Against this proposal, I argue sense-data as structured universals are …

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