The Importance of Knowledge

Occam's realist opponents had good reasons for their view. There do seem to be features shared and common by all humans, he writes. But when we have knowledge of these features, our understanding is not directed at any particular human. When I think that humans are rational, I am not thinking that Groucho is rational, says Occam. He argues it is unnecessary to postulate real universals or common natures to explain the universal knowledge we do genuinely have.