Are there universals? Revisiting the question through Searle’s Theory of Perception

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15448/1983-4012.2020.1.34715

Keywords:

Universals, Ontology, Ontological Commitment, John Searle, Perception

Abstract

This paper revisits the old question about the ontology of universals. It was extensively debated in Medieval Philosophy, especially by the influence of Aristotle’s writings. That question was also discussed by Strawson and Quine in the twentieth century. This paper aims to investigate the existence of universals and the quality of its existence. The background for this research was the theory of perception of John Searle. However, in order to reach this goal, it will be showed and discussed some previous theories about the ontology of universals, such as the proposals of Strawson and Quine. From Strawson, it will be analyzed his definition of universals. From Quine, it will be discussed the famous proposal of the ontological commitment. The research built from this scenario and, then, exposed the theory of perception of John Searle. Only then, the consequences of that theory to the study of the ontology of universals were analyzed. As a matter of conclusion, it will be realized that the theory of perception of Searle points to the existence of the universals as non-linguistic entities whose characteristics remain present in the real world.

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References

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SEARLE, John R. Speech Acts: an essay in the philosophy of language. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1969. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173438.

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STRAWSON, P. F. Particular and general. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, v. 54, n. 1, p. 233-260, 1954. https://doi.org/10.1093/aristotelian/54.1.233.

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Published

2020-07-15

How to Cite

Castro Neto, J. C. C. (2020). Are there universals? Revisiting the question through Searle’s Theory of Perception. Intuitio, 13(1), e34715. https://doi.org/10.15448/1983-4012.2020.1.34715

Issue

Vol. 13 No. 1 (2020)

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Articles

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