A Nominalist Perspective on God and Abstract Objects

Philosophia Christi 13 (2):305-318 (2011)
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Abstract

A metaphysically robust, as opposed to lightweight, Platonism with respect to uncreatable abstract objects is theologically unacceptable because it fatally compromises creatio ex nihilo and divine aseity. The principal argument for Platonism is the so-called Indispensability Argument based on the ontological commitments required by singular terms and existential quantifiers in true sentences. Different varieties of Nominalism challenge each of the argument’s premises. Fictionalism accepts the assumed criterion of ontological commitment but rejects the truth of the relevant sentences. Neutralism accepts the truth of the relevant sentences but denies the assumed criterion of ontological commitment. Both of these perspectives, but especially the last, are plausible routes available for the Christian theist.

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William Lane Craig
Houston Baptist University

Citations of this work

Created and Uncreated Things.Michelle Panchuk - 2016 - International Philosophical Quarterly 56 (1):99-112.
The Problem of Universals, Realism, and God.Paul Gould - 2012 - Metaphysica 13 (2):183-194.
Omni-beauty as a divine attribute.Robson Jon - 2019 - Religious Studies 55 (1):55-75.

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