Abstract
The concept of universals is parasitic upon another concept, resemblance (or similarity or likeness). So the first task is to understand the latter in order to talk intelligently about the former. This is a concept which was used by Socrates in his arguments for deducing the existence of Ideas or universals. It was also assuumed, as we indicated, by Hume, Russell, Moore and Carnap, to be a fundamental relation indispensable for knowledge. It is argued by some that since resemblance is not reducible to anything else, it should be regarded as either a primitive concept or the universal as such. We remember that Plato not only employed this concept first in binding particulars together and then in assigning Ideas to them, but later, he also recognized it as one of the three higher type Ideas which is predicable of the lower types.
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I cite a comment made by two logicians:“Russell, indeed, showed how to eliminate classes in favor of propositional functions but these functions were just attributes, (properties or relations), hence at least as universal as classes.” (p. 337)
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© 1966 Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands
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Zabeeh, F. (1966). A Constructive Move. In: Universals. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-9602-4_4
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