Against the possibility of metaphysical knowledge, Popper endorses the nominalism of William of Ockham, the fourteenth-century Franciscan who argued that concepts such as “human nature” are not essences but merely linguistic conventions (nomen, “name,” thus “nominalism”). By Popper’s way of thinking, a “methodological nominalism” must play an important role in the reconstruction of Europe.10 Its anti-metaphysical linguistic conventionalism, which prevents us from imagining we can grasp the truth with concepts, encourages modesty with respect to truth, a disposition we need if we are to develop
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