nominalistic
1
9.9
- adjective
- /ˌnɑːmɪˈnælɪstɪk/
- Specialized
- Many critics believe that adopting a nominalistic framework reduces complex ideas to simplistic terminology.
- nominalistic view
- nominalistic view of language
Examples
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So Laszewski belongs to a tradition in in Poland that may be broadly classified as nominalistic philosophy.
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This essentially solipsistic attitude toward language is yet more pessimistic about the possibilities of attaining objective meaning than even Mauthner's nominalistic conception of language as a conventional social construct.
Academic text (2003) -
It is precisely a nominalistic view of language such as Mauthner's that ultimately accounts for the richness unveiled by Menard's method.
Academic text (2003) -
Such an inquiry would be a practice contrary to the law of mind, because it would presuppose a nominalistic conception of minds and ideas as separate, detached entities interacting in a mechanistic fashion.
Academic text (2017) -
I pointed out how "Creation Science" in its various manifestations is nominalistic and requires one to follow Occam's understanding of God in relation to will (which, by the way, has the same problem as those traditions of Islam Benedict famously criticized).
Blog text (7) -
This infinite plurality of meanings, of course, would not be possible if the idea of meaning itself had not been infused with the nominalistic or linguistic ethos of postmodern relativism, according to which meaning cannot be distinguished from the discourse that voices it.
Academic text (2003) -
The philosopher argued that a nominalistic approach fails to recognize the existence of universal truths.
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In his lecture, he explained how a nominalistic perspective sees words as mere labels without inherent meaning.
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Nominalistic comes from the Latin root nomen meaning 'name', the same root you see in nominal and nominate. A nominalistic view says general ideas or 'universals' are only names we use, not real things by themselves, which is why the word describes the belief that such concepts exist only as names.