Some ontological problems concerning predication

Abstract

The Aristotelian double characterization of a primary substance exploits the difference between the part-whole relation and the non-linguistic relation of predication. A problem arises whether and how the second relation could be reduced to something else. Such a reduction is explicitly declared or at least implicitly assumed in all version of conceptualism and nominalism. The moderate realism is often interpreted as a reductionism of this kind but such interpretations do not seem corect. Only the so called resemblance theory can be regarded as a successful attempt at the reduction in question. However, it seems that the predication per se cannot be disposed of even in this way. If so, then the nature of the relation of predication still waits for a precise analysia and description. This would provide an insight into the essence of a universal being.