Introduction

Abstract

My subject is nominalism in general and contemporary nominalism in particular. I examine in this book the advantages and disadvantages of the ontologies and epistemologies of W.V.O. Quine and N. Goodman, against the background of traditional nominalism. Both authors are heirs of logical empiricism; they share the idea that constructivistic systems, suitable as an instrument for a scientific description of parts of the world, should be in accordance with the nominalistic principle that the building blocks must be individuals that are sums of their parts and nothing else. Next to this, there are several other fundamental points of view they have in common. Like most heirs of a construction, the first thing they have done was transform it.