4/25/2023 0 Comments Ockham languageDespite its rich content, the central thesis of the connotation theory is simple: while absolute terms have no semantically equivalent definitions, every connotative term has a fully expanded nominal definition which consists of only absolute terms and syncategoremata, and which is semantically equivalent to the connotative term (e.g., the connotative term "white" has a semantically equivalent nominal definition "something having a whiteness"). In connection with the connotation theory, a further demarcation among categorematic terms is introduced: there are absolute terms (e.g., "man"), terms of categories of substance and quality, corresponding to natural kind terms in modem terminology and there are connotative terms (e.g., "white"), terms of categories of quantity, relation, action, passion, when, where, position, and habit. 3 Thus, the concepts "man," "white," "to kick" are categorematic while "every," "but," "on" syncategorematic. In Ockham's mental language, terms are divided into two groups: (1) categorematic terms, mental counterparts of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, that signify (make us think of) things in the world (2) syncategorematic terms, mental counterparts of adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, that do not by themselves signify any distinct reality but modify the significations of the categorematic terms to which they are conjoined. That is to say, while spoken or written signs vary from one community to another, mental signs -concepts and their combinations - are at least ideally the same for all people, and while the meanings of mental signs are originally acquired through natural processes, the meanings of written and spoken signs are derived from those of the mental signs with which they are associated by convention. ![]() Among the three, mental language is natural, while the other two conventional. Ockham, following Boethius, distinguished three levels of language: written, spoken, and mental. The theory of connotation is a theory about significations of terms in mental language. ![]() ![]() The main mechanism that brings forth the ontological elimination is his theory of connotation. One theme that defines Ockham's nominalism, 2 the one we will discuss in this paper, is his ontological elimination of eight Aristotelian categories - categories other than those of substance and quality. The most famous doctrine in William of Ockham's metaphysics is probably his nominalism. Ockham's Connotation Theory and Ontological Elimination
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