Please discuss the following passage:

“That the houses and roses and sunsets are all of them red may be taken as ultimate and irreducible, and it may be held that McX is not better off, in point of real explanatory power, for all the occult entities which he posits under such names as ‘redness” (W.V.O. Quine).

Discuss what Quine meant by it.

The essay should state Quine’s position about Universals and terms such as ‘red’ or ‘square’. It should also mention Quine’s counterpart, the realists. I think it is good to highlight the good aspects of each one of them as well as their weaknesses. With examples when possible. The essay could conclude favouring one side, the one with the best arguments. However, stating that both share somehow something true and if you find some back up for stating that they base their theories on separating world and language in different realms it could be nice to mention it in the conclusion.