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    Carmelics

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    It is not the case that On a nominalist reading advanced by Quine, apparent property-attribution in 'a is F' is fully captured by applying a predicate expression to a name, requiring no abstract property-entity as a third term in any linking relation.

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    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Predicate expressions are linguistic items; they cannot explain what makes 'a is F' true independently of what F actually is.
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    • 2.Multiple distinct objects can satisfy the same predicate (multiple red things), suggesting a shared abstract property, not just linguistic application.
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    • 3.Nominalism struggles to account for property similarity, comparative predication ('more F than G'), and mathematical properties without abstract entities.
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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
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    • 1.Predicate application fully explains linguistic behavior; positing abstract properties adds unobservable entities without empirical gain.
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    • 2.Properties create philosophical puzzles (location, causation, identity) that disappear when we treat predicates as primitive syntactic tools.
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    • 3.Occam's razor favors the simpler ontology: names and predicates suffice without positing a mysterious third relational term.
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