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    The proposition 'The universal-man is (something) white' ... — Carmelics
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    The proposition 'The universal-man is (something) white' (homo in communi est album) is true if at least one existing man is white

    Philosophy of Language
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Predication by essence allows a property to be indirectly attributed to the universal through its individuals
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    • 2.Using a predicate-term in neuter substantival adjective form signals that the form connoted is not directly present in the universal but is attributed through its individuals
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    • 3.At least one individual of universal-man being white is sufficient for the indirect attribution to hold
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Predication requires a determinate subject: 'universal-man' as an abstraction lacks the ontological determinacy needed to serve as a genuine predicate-bearer.
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    • 2.Frege's distinction between concept and object shows that universal terms function as unsaturated predicates, not objects that can themselves receive predication.
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    • 3.Allowing existential facts about individuals to constitute truths about universals collapses the type-distinction between first-order and second-order predication.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Ockham's nominalist critique establishes that 'universal-man' names no real entity beyond a mental term, so any proposition positing it as subject lacks a genuine referent.
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    • 2.A proposition whose subject term fails to supposit for a real entity is not made true by facts about individuals falling under that concept, but is simply a category error.
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    Related

    A proposition whose subject term fails to supposit for a real entity is not made...Allowing existential facts about individuals to constitute truths about universa...At least one individual of universal-man being white is sufficient for the indir...Frege's distinction between concept and object shows that universal terms functi...
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    Ockham's nominalist critique establishes that 'universal-man' names no real enti...Predication by essence allows a property to be indirectly attributed to the univ...Predication requires a determinate subject: 'universal-man' as an abstraction la...Using a predicate-term in neuter substantival adjective form signals that the fo...

    Similar

    At least one individual of universal-man being white is sufficient for...81%Man is universal because man is understood universally by the intellec...77%The essential predication 'man is an animal' is true even if no men ex...75%The proposition that man necessarily is or is conceived of as animal i...75%

    Source

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    SEP: penbygull
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    Penbygull, like other Oxford logicians of his generation, tried to improve Wyclif's theory by excluding habitudinal predication and redefining the other two kinds in a slightly different way. Penbygull therefore divides predication (which he conceives as a real relation which holds between metaphysical objects [De universalibus, p. 188]) into formal predication (praedicatio formalis), predication by essence (secundum essentiam), and causal predication. Predication by essence shows a partial iden
    Extraction notes

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    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit