[Wittrs] Re: Nominalism / Sean
- From: "iro3isdx" <xznwrjnk-evca@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:27:32 -0000
--- In Wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "jrstern" <jrstern@...> wrote:
>> For folk usage, a
>> computer is a box you buy at the store that has "computer" on the
>> label, but that won't do for theoretical usage.
> Very nearly, it does.
> And here is where my nominalism does its first heavy lifting!
> The trick, in nominalist terms, is not to define the abstraction,
> but to find a particular.
Sorry, I don't see it.
Shall I say that my left shoe is a computer, but my right shoe isn't?
Shall I say that a glass of wine is a computer, but a cup of coffee
isn't?
My understanding is that nominalism has to do with the status of the
property of being a computer. Is that property something real in this
world, or is it an ideal form in Plato's world? Or are we just using
the name?
I don't particularly care about those. I am just interested in the
criteria we use when deciding whether to say something is a computer.
Maybe the criteria are vague or ambiguous, and I can live with that.
But there need to be some criteria. If we just apply the term
haphazardly, then it is meaningless to talk about whether something is
a computer, or whether something is computation. And I guess even
that's okay, but in that case lets stop using the term, since it is
useless.
I think I am agreeing with Sean's criticism, that nominalism doesn't
actually do anything for you.
Regards,
Neil
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