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- Title
Getting real about nominalism again: Special forum introduction.
- Authors
Datta, Ronjon Paul; Hanemaayer, Ariane
- Abstract
Nominalism, while significantly affecting the history and development of modern western thought since the fourteenth century, has unfortunately been neglected in much recent social theory. In this article, we offer an introduction to this Special Forum on nominalism to help redress this circumstance. In addition to this introductory piece, the Forum consists of three articles respectively covering: questions of nominalism, relativism and universalism in relation to Enlightenment debates over China; tensions over nominalist and realist theoretical visualities in Durkheim and Weber; and a critique of nominalist sensibilities in the sociology of finance combined with the articulation of a novel sociologically realist alternative. Specifically, in this piece, we contextualize the emergence of nominalism, adumbrating how it affects a variety of metatheoretical judgments, especially concerning the nature of social reality and what can possibly be known about it. Michel Foucault's nominalism and Ian Hacking's conception of 'dynamic nominalism' are also discussed. Finally, it invites critical realists to consider how commitments to humanism might implicate them in nominalism.
- Subjects
CHINA; NOMINALISM; REALIST fiction; FOURTEENTH century; MODERN history; SOCIAL theory
- Publication
Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 2021, Vol 51, Issue 4, p510
- ISSN
0021-8308
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1111/jtsb.12279