SOURCE: "The Ontology of William of Ockham" in Ockham's Theory of Terms: Part I of "Summa Logicae," by WIlliam of Ockham, translated by Michael J. Loux, University of Notre Dame, 1974, pp. 1-22.

In the following essay, Loux focuses on some problems inherent in Ockham's use of the terms concrete and abstract.

The distinctions between singular and general terms, on the one hand, and abstract and concrete terms, on the other, play crucial roles in discussions of ontological issues. Although these dichotomies can be expressed in purely grammatical terms, they have traditionally been thought to point to two over-arching distinctions among things. Philosophers have frequently claimed that the singular-general term distinction is rooted in a distinction between objects that are particulars and objects that are universals; whereas, the distinction between concrete and abstract terms forces us to confront the distinction between substances (minimally interpreted to include material bodies and...