Porphyry’s Interpretation of Categories – The Neoplatonic Approach to Nominalism?

Abstract

According to some opinions, because of Porphyry’s account of categories as lex eis, his teaching has been regarded as a type of nominalism. In my opinion, however, in Porphyry the categories constitute generic concepts of things. Porphyry’s doctrine ���������������������������� rather is a version of real ism that allows him to unite the Aristotelian categorical doctrine with the Plotinian ontology.