Recurrence and Resemblance

Abstract

In the previous two chapters, we have considered the theories of universals put forward by various specific philosophers. But the Recurrence and Resemblance theories, which we shall be considering in this chapter, cannot in the same way be labeled with the names of particular philosophers. Rather, they are two possible types of view which in the present century have formed the starting point for discussions of universals in the work of many different philosophers. They represent the attempts of these philosophers to formulate what seemed to them the most plausible versions of realism and of anti-realism, without relating either too closely to specific views on other philosophical questions.