Nominalism
Etymology
From Latin "nomen," "name." It comes from the great medieval debate over universals; its most forceful defender was William of Ockham in the 1300s, who argued that only individual things exist and that universals are merely names the mind applies to them.
noun · /NOM-ih-nuh-liz-um/
The view that general categories and abstract concepts are just names we invent, not real things existing independently in the world.
What it names
A handle for the suspicion that words like “justice,” “red,” or “species” label convenient groupings rather than pick out real universals out there in reality.
Example
A nominalist would say “weeds” is not a natural category at all — just a name for plants we happen not to want.
Related idea
Essentialism assumes categories track real, shared essences; nominalism denies it, treating those categories as labels of convenience rather than discoveries.
See also