Nominalism: Abelard and Ockham Philosophical

Nominalism: Abelard and Ockham

Philosophical nominalism can be traced back as far as Aristotle. In contrast to Platonism, which is founded upon the belief in the existence of universal abstractions such as Truth and Beauty, philosophical nominalism reflects the idea that "only individual objects have real existence" (Rausch 2010). Platonism, and its medieval incarnation, Neo-Platonism, emphasizes deductive reasoning, while the nominalist Aristotle has been called the founder of the scientific method and empirical observation. For a nominalist, "the name 'circle' is applied to things that are round and is thus a general designation; but no concrete identity with a separate essence of roundness exists corresponding to the name. Realism suggests that there are universals with a real and independent existence "prior to and apart from particular objects" (Rausch 2010). A third school of thought, known as conceptionalism emerged in the teaching of the Stoics, which held that sensation is "the underlying principle of all knowledge and thought is only a collective sensation" (De Wulf 1914).

The distinction between the different philosophical orientations of nominalism and realism became particularly important during the Middle Ages. Extreme realists stated that nominalism, taken to its logical extent, would mean that the Trinity would be composed of three separate gods, as the ideal notion of a concept of a multifaceted deity could not exist independent of earthly realities. They also argued that nominalism ran counter to the principle that there was a single, natural holy law governing all people and that nominalism heretically only provided moral guidance in regards to individual actions. The nominalist position was expounded by the Scholastic Roscelin and the realist position by the Scholastics Bernard of Chartres and William of Champeaux. Peter Abelard, one of the most famous medieval nominalists, studied with all of these teachers, and engaged in several notorious debates with Bernard on the question.

Abelard advanced a new form of nominalism, a reformation of the thought of his teachers and predecessors. This was one reason he was accused of heresy. In his writings, "Abelard maintains that everything in the world apart from God and angels is either form, matter, or a composite of form and matter" (King 2004). An individual form is a configuration of material parts, the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water. The attributes of the original matter may persist or be absorbed, but forms have no independent existence beyond the matter that composes the form. There is no Platonic 'statue,' rather every statue is different, depending upon its shape, material, and the sculptor's method of composition. So-called universals like 'Truth' and 'Beauty' are merely words; they do not have an independent existence, according to Abelard, other than that which the philosopher who creates such conceptions may have in his or her mind. The cross-pollination of different categories between such universals 'proves' their lack of universality: an animal is both rational in the form of a human and irrational in the form of an ass given that the universal also includes the 'lower' animals (King 2004).

Nominalists would thus take issue with such statements as 'society causes us to behave' morally or immorally. "In the face of the question, it becomes hard to find what 'SOCIETY' may mean 'above and beyond' just the set of behaviors which we claim it causes. Is there 'anything left over' to which 'SOCIETY' refers, apart from just the set of behaviors and individuals which make up the members of a society? & #8230; if the nominalists are correct, and the only terms which have meaning are terms referring to particulars -- then 'SOCIETY' means only just the set of behaviors belonging to a set of individuals who make up a given society" (Ess 2004).

In contrast to his nominalist predecessors, however, Abelard would argue that universal words such as society do have an impact in the world. However, they do not have meaning because of their sensory or real existence, rather they have meaning because of how they affect individual human behavior (Ess 2010). Concepts in the mind such as 'society' can thus have an impact on the real, sensory world but they do not have an independent, tangible or ideal existence. The one exception to Abelard's nominalism is the category of "human beings, whose forms are their immaterial (and immortal) souls. Strictly speaking, since human souls are capable of existence in separation form the body, they are not forms after all, though they act as substantial forms as long as they are joined to the body" (King 2004). Through this idea, Abelard strove to reconcile Christianity with nominalism and to elevate the human being.

The other great medieval nominalist of note is William Ockham. Ockham also subscribed to the Aristotelian ontology of realist empiricism, believing that universal essences "are nothing more than concepts in the mind" and no innate ideas exist apart from the mind (Kaye 2007). "The defense of nominalism undertaken by the 14th-century English Scholastic philosopher William of Ockham prepared the way for various modern nominalistic theories such as those of instrumentalism, pragmatism, semantics, and logical positivism" (Rausch 2010). Ockham, like Abelard, defended the reality of "individual substances and qualities" not abstractions (Rausch 2010).

In his epistemology, Ockham defended direct realist empiricism, according to which human beings perceive objects through "intuitive cognition," without the help of any innate ideas pre-existing within the structure of the mind, as asserted in Platonism. Ockham's writings suggest the blank slate of the human mind gives rise to all of our abstract concepts and provides us with knowledge of the world, not something that exists in our minds innately (Kaye 2007). Four steps existed in cognition, according to Ockham. The first, sensory cognition: receiving data through the five senses, is shared between humans and animals. The second, is an awareness and a perception of individual qualities in the world called intuitive cognition. "The third step is recordative cognition, by which we remember past perceptions. The fourth step is abstractive cognition, by which we place individuals in groups of similar individuals" (Kaye 2007). Such a creation of abstractions, however, is the product of the human mind alone, not an awareness of preexisting categories.