(n.) One of a sect of philosophers in the Middle Ages, who adopted the opinion of Roscelin, that general conceptions, or universals, exist in name only.
Example Sentences:
(1) This nominalist analysis of the medical usages of the names of diseases has consequences for definitions of health and disease, and for some problems in medical ethics.
(2) A nominalist approach would facilitate study of aetiological factors and variables in the natural history of diseases.
(3) Taking into account advances in the empirical sciences, it is termed nominalistic or constructivistic correspondence theory.
(4) Gillon summarizes the realist and nominalist approaches to disease and to the question whether it is an evaluative or a value free concept.
(5) Thus persons with a dominant left hemisphere tend to prefer nominalist ontology and have more aptitude for ordinal mathematics than for cardinal mathematics, while persons with a dominant right hemisphere tend to prefer platonist ontology and have more aptitude for cardinal mathematics than for ordinal mathematics.
(6) Doctors have obviously accepted more heterogeneous defining characteristics but remain reluctant to adopt unequivocally nominalist ways of thought.
Realist
Definition:
(n.) One who believes in realism; esp., one who maintains that generals, or the terms used to denote the genera and species of things, represent real existences, and are not mere names, as maintained by the nominalists.
(n.) An artist or writer who aims at realism in his work. See Realism, 2.
Example Sentences:
(1) A full-scale war is unlikely but there is clear concern in Seoul about the more realistic threat of a small-scale attack on the South Korean military or a group of islands near the countries' disputed maritime border in the Yellow Sea.
(2) But she says she is totally convinced that, as a public broadcaster, RAI has an ethical responsibility to start showing women in a more realistic light.
(3) You can’t prevent it,” he says, calling himself a realist.
(4) "If I hadn't scored that goal, I might still have ended up playing in Italy [Platt went on to play for Bari, Juventus and Sampdoria] but, realistically, I'm sure it was the catalyst.
(5) Given his background, Boyle says, growing up in a council house near Bury, with his two sisters (one a twin) and his strict and hard-working parents (his mum worked as a dinner lady at his school), he should by rights have been a gritty social realist, but that tradition never appealed to him.
(6) The ordered aspect of the genetic code table makes this result a plausible starting point for studies of the origin and evolution of the genetic code: these could include, besides a more refined optimization principle at the logical level, some effects more directly related to the physico-chemical context, and the construction of realistic models incorporating both aspects.
(7) A realistic interpretation of neurophysiologic data on the neostriatum must take into account all cell types instead of the current view of considering it as a pool of interneurons with few output cells.
(8) However, he told the BBC the 2014 target was a realistic aim.
(9) "I know fans will be disappointed but I think they are also realistic.
(10) Finally, an integrated control of Chagas Disease must emphasise complementary activities such as housing improvement and the active control of blood banks to eliminate transfusional transmission, besides the development of a realistic medical care system.
(11) Concluding that he didn't really want a career as a gritty Northern Irish realist, Harvey decided to train as a teacher.
(12) The possibility of pulmonary edema from fluid overload in nonhypovolemic patients, and reluctance of field personnel to infuse fluid at the rates necessary to produce benefit raise further questions about realistic benefit of IV's in all but the most rural systems.
(13) Epidemiological effects of lung cancer screening have not yet been confirmed, but so many lung cancer cases have been detected and treated, that a realistic approach for the improvement of screening programs was discussed.
(14) In asthmatic patients with aspirin sensitivity, who undergo ASA desensitization, continuous treatment with ASA or NSAIDs is realistic.
(15) Evaluations of the summer program have revealed that the students have an increased academic self-concept, a more realistic view of the requirements to become a health professional, and an enhanced awareness of the health care environment.
(16) A way must be found to experiment with various discretionary approaches that would strike a realistic balance among competing interests.
(17) She believes her explorations – of their vanities, their blindnesses, their cruelties, of the brief moments in which they attain goodness, or glimpse a kind of realistic, unselfish love – to be of urgent importance.
(18) I think we can realistically put back what we had 25 or 30 years ago.” However, the engineering projects are prohibitively expensive.
(19) Unemployment stands at a massive 36.7% using the most realistic definition, he noted in a June 2013 speech, with the proportion of those out of work for more than a year at 68%.
(20) It offers a more clinically realistic setting than models based on costs alone.