 Relatedly, properties have been called for to explain our use of general terms. How is it, e.g., that we apply “spherical” to those balls over there and refuse to do it for the nearby bench? It does not seem to be due to an arbitrary decision concerning where, or where not, to stick a certain label. It seems rather the case that the recognition of a certain property in some objects but not in others elicits the need for a label, “spherical”, which is then used for objects having that property and not for others. Properties are thus invoked as meanings of general terms and predicates (Plato, Phaedo, 78e; Russell 1912: ch. 9). In contrast with this, Quine (1948; 1953 [1980: 11, 21, 131] ) influentially argued that the use of general terms and predicates in itself does not involve an ontological commitment to entities corresponding to them, since it is by deploying singular terms that we purport to refer to something (see also Sellars 1960). However, as noted, predicates can be nominalized and thus occur as singular terms. Hence, even if one agrees with Quine, nominalized predicates still suggest the existence of properties as their referents, at least to the extent that the use of nominalized predicates cannot be paraphrased away (Loux 2006: 25–34; entry on  platonism in metaphysics, §4).