Category:Nominalism

The philosophical position that universals do not exist as objects, but only as concepts. For instance, an abstract concept like “society” or “religion” or “government” does not name an actual thing; it is just the name we give to a bunch of things that sort of resemble each other. This premise is particularly strong in the social sciences and humanities, which, unlike the natural sciences, is aware of the artificiality of the concepts it creates.

"“Values, which are the proper subject of social science, are radically subjective, concrete and individualistic. Unlike the “nomothetic” knowledge that natural science seeks, what matters in historical science is not a universal law-like causality, but an understanding of the particular way in which an individual ascribes values to certain events and institutions or takes a position towards the general cultural values of his/her time under a unique, never- to-be-repeated constellation of historical circumstances.”"http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/weber/#LifCar