We examine when a space X has a zero set universal parametrised by a metrisable space of minimal weight and show that this depends on the σ-weight of X when X is perfectly normal. We also show that if Y parametrises a zero set universal for X then hL(X) ≤ hd(Y ) for all n ∈ N. We construct zero set universals that have nice properties (such as separability or ccc) in the case where the space ha...

ion’ (Halbfass, 1992, p. 145). That is to say, the abstract noun-phrase ‘is-ness’ is an artificial device, used to mention an entity that resists introduction as either a subject or a predicate, an entity, in other words, which is not itself either a particular or a universal. Existence is not a predicate; it is – to borrow the terminology of Section 5 – a delimitor, albeit a minimal one, of be...

Although linguistics is plausibly taken to be “the science of language,” the actual object of inquiry in the field has changed considerably over time. Prior to the influence of deSaussure in the first part of the twentieth century, linguists concerned themselves primarily with the ways in which languages have developed historically. For the next several decades, they devoted their attention to ...

The chapter starts out with a brief discussion of the similarity alleged to exist by the editors of William Ockham’s Ordinatio between a series of opinions canvassed by Ockham on the nature of universals and a series of opinions listed by James of Viterbo on the nature of concepts. It then proceeds to expound James’s little known theory of concepts and universals, and concludes that, despite in...

One of the tasks of ontology in information science is to support the classification of entities according to their kinds and qualities. We hold that to realize this task as far as entities such as material objects are concerned we need to distinguish four kinds of entities: substance particulars, quality particulars, substance universals, and quality universals. These form, so to speak, an ont...

Fraser MacBride, On the Genealogy of Universals: The Metaphysical Origins Analytic Philosophy, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.