Universal (metaphysics) definition of Universal (metaphysics) in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

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 nominalism, in philosophy, a theory of the relation between universals and particulars. Nominalism gained its name in the Middle Ages, when it was contrasted with realism .
..... Click the link for more information. universals are considered arbitrary constructions of the human mind. In conceptualism conceptualism, in philosophy, position taken on the problem of universals , initially by Peter Abelard in the 12th cent. Like nominalism it denied that universals exist independently of the mind, but it held that universals have an existence in the mind as concept.
..... Click the link for more information. 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 realism, in philosophy.

1 In medieval philosophy realism represented a position taken on the problem of universals . There were two schools of realism.
..... Click the link for more information. 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).

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Bibliography

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