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    Carmelics

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    Made withinDC&Austin
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    Perspectives
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    Home/Original/inverse
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    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The proposition 'The universal-man is (something) white' (homo in communi est album) is true if at least one existing man is white

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 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 for 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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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 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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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.