Nominalism in literary discourse

Literary/ Cultural Context Essay

Hugo Keiper (Karl-Franzens-Universit)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Anca Dan (École Practique de Hautes Études PSL), Martine Diepenbroek (University of Johannesburg), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Victoria Fendel (University of Oxford), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University), Guendalina Daniela Maria Taietti (University of Liverpool)

Domains

Literature Topic
Schools and Theories (philosophy)

Dates

Places

Ancient Greece (Location)
Europe, Europe - Southwest (Location)
Europe, Europe - West (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

Context

Nominalism and realism are fundamental positions in (the) philosophy (of language), semiotics, and various other fields, relating to the nature, origin and ontological status of universals or general terms. Realists hold that universals have an existence independently of language or of thought, either as entities external to and preceding individual things (ante rem), such as Platonic ideas and the like, or else within things (in rebus), as argued by Aristotle and his followers. Nominalists, on the other hand, believe that universals do not exist independently of language or the mind and come into existence only after the experience of things. It seems that from the very beginnings of an awareness of such issues in ancient Greek philosophy, these incompatible positions – which

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

4463 words

Citation: Keiper, Hugo. "Nominalism in literary discourse". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=13885, accessed 28 November 2024.]

Nominalism in literary discourse

Domains

Dates

Places

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback