Catholic Dictionary

Find accurate definitions of over 5,000 Catholic terms and phrases (including abbreviations). Based on Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

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NOMINALISM

A theory that universal ideas, like truth, goodness, and humanity, are only names. It denies that universals are true concepts, present in the mind, that correspond to and are founded on objective reality. All abstract ideas, according to the nominalists, are only useful labels. (Etym. Latin nominalis, belonging to a name.)

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