universals

universals in philosophy, term applied to general or abstract objects such as concepts, qualities, relations, and numbers, as opposed to particular objects. The exact nature of a universal deeply concerned thinkers in the Middle Ages. The extreme realists, following Plato, maintained that universals exist independently of both the human mind and particular things. In nominalism universals are considered arbitrary constructions of the human mind. In conceptualism universals exist only in the mind, as concepts, but they are not arbitrary, as they reflect similarities among particular things. Conceptualism led to the moderate realism of St. Thomas Aquinas and John of Salisbury.

Bibliography: See R. I. Aaron, Theory of Universals (2d ed. 1967); D. M. Armstrong, Universals and Scientific Realism (2 vol., 1980).

universals. Abstract concepts, representing the common elements belonging to individuals of the same genus or species. The medieval doctrine of universals derived from Greek philosophy. According to their answer to the question whether universals were things (‘res’) or only names (‘nomina’), philosophers subscribed to the system of Realism or Nominalism (qq.v.).