Nominalism

Nominalism is the view that general terms do not name independently existing universal entities. It denies that shared features require a common entity existing beyond particular things.

Universals: Universals are entities said to be wholly present in multiple particular things, such as redness or triangularity. Nominalism rejects universals as independently existing entities shared by particulars.
Realism about universals: Realism about universals holds that at least some properties or relations exist independently of particular instances. It directly opposes nominalism by affirming shared entities behind common features.
Roscelin of Compiègne: Roscelin of Compiègne was an eleventh-century French philosopher associated with an early form of nominalism. His reported views are among the earliest medieval positions linked to nominalism.
Ontological commitment: Ontological commitment is the set of entities a theory must accept as existing for its claims to be true. Nominalism challenges whether theories need universals among their commitments.
Particular: A particular is an individual entity, distinct from properties or kinds that may be shared by many entities. Nominalist accounts begin with particular things rather than shared universal entities.
Conceptualism: Conceptualism holds that universals exist as concepts in minds rather than independently of them. It agrees that universals are not mind-independent but locates them in thought.
Peter Abelard: Peter Abelard was a medieval philosopher and theologian known for work in logic, language, and theology. His account of words and universals refined the debate beyond simple word-only theories.
Quine–Putnam indispensability argument: The Quine–Putnam indispensability argument claims that entities indispensable to successful science should be accepted as real. The argument pressures nominalists to account for mathematics and scientific theories without abstract entities.
Predication: Predication is the relation by which a property or feature is attributed to a subject. Nominalists explain shared predicates without treating them as names of universals.
Trope theory: Trope theory holds that properties are particular instances, such as this object's redness, rather than repeatable universals. It offers a particularist account of properties while treating property instances as real.

Linked from 15 pages