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In
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things. For example, suppose there are two chairs in a room, each of which is green. These two chairs both share the quality of " chairness", as well as greenness or the quality of being green; in other words, they share a "universal". There are three major kinds of qualities or characteristics: types or kinds (e.g. mammal),
properties Property is the ownership of land, resources, improvements or other tangible objects, or intellectual property. Property may also refer to: Mathematics * Property (mathematics) Philosophy and science * Property (philosophy), in philosophy an ...
(e.g. short, strong), and relations (e.g. father of, next to). These are all different types of universals. Paradigmatically, universals are '' abstract'' (e.g. humanity), whereas
particular In metaphysics, particulars or individuals are usually contrasted with universals. Universals concern features that can be exemplified by various different particulars. Particulars are often seen as concrete, spatiotemporal entities as opposed to a ...
s are ''
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
'' (e.g. the personhood of Socrates). However, universals are not necessarily abstract and particulars are not necessarily concrete. For example, one might hold that numbers are particular yet abstract objects. Likewise, some philosophers, such as D. M. Armstrong, consider universals to be concrete. Most do not consider classes to be universals, although some prominent philosophers do, such as John Bigelow.


Qualification of universals

The history of any creation went through a process of qualifications meeting dependancies of that type thing, including all parts put together to make it an accepted thing of its particular type. A chair must first exist upon a surface with the force of gravity upon it. The chair must be upon something solid and it must provide a platform for something to sit upon. Any other universals for “chairness” must qualify the particular dependencies set forth by authority. The first chair qualified itself as a chair from its propriety. Universals exist in every created thing, but only in the individual subparts themselves, not in the whole thing itself. Universals can be thought of as an evolution of a creation’s life constantly on a journey towards perfection.


Problem of universals

The
problem of universals The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics that has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes: Should the properties an object has in common with other objects, such as color and shape, be considered to exist be ...
is an ancient problem in metaphysics about whether universals exist. The problem arises from attempts to account for the phenomenon of similarity or attribute agreement among things. For example,
grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...
and Granny Smith apples are similar or agree in attribute, namely in having the attribute of greenness. The issue is how to account for this sort of agreement in attribute among things. There are many philosophical positions regarding universals. Taking "
beauty Beauty is commonly described as a feature of objects that makes these objects pleasurable to perceive. Such objects include landscapes, sunsets, humans and works of art. Beauty, together with art and taste, is the main subject of aesthetics, o ...
" as an example, four positions are: *
Idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ...
: beauty is a property constructed in the mind, so it exists only in descriptions of things. * Platonic extreme realism: beauty is a property that exists in an ideal form independently of any mind or thing. * Aristotelian moderate realism or conceptualism: beauty is a property of things (''fundamentum in re'') that the mind abstracts from these beautiful things. *
Nominalism In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universalsthings ...
: there are no universals, only individuals. Taking a broader view, the main positions are generally considered classifiable as:
extreme realism The problem of universals is an ancient question from metaphysics that has inspired a range of philosophical topics and disputes: Should the property (philosophy), properties an object has in common with other objects, such as color and shape, be ...
,
nominalism In metaphysics, nominalism is the view that universals and abstract objects do not actually exist other than being merely names or labels. There are at least two main versions of nominalism. One version denies the existence of universalsthings ...
(sometimes simply named "anti-realism" with regard to universals), moderate realism, and
idealism In philosophy, the term idealism identifies and describes metaphysical perspectives which assert that reality is indistinguishable and inseparable from perception and understanding; that reality is a mental construct closely connected to ...
. Extreme Realists posit the existence of independent, abstract universals to account for attribute agreement. Nominalists deny that universals exist, claiming that they are not necessary to explain attribute agreement. Conceptualists posit that universals exist only in the
mind The mind is the set of faculties responsible for all mental phenomena. Often the term is also identified with the phenomena themselves. These faculties include thought, imagination, memory, will, and sensation. They are responsible for various m ...
, or when conceptualized, denying the independent existence of universals, but accepting they have a ''fundamentum in re''. Complications which arise include the implications of language use and the complexity of relating language to
ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophy, philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, Becoming (philosophy), becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into Category ...
.


Particular

A universal may have instances, known as its ''particulars''. For example, the type ''dog'' (or ''doghood'') is a universal, as are the property ''red'' (or ''redness'') and the relation ''betweenness'' (or ''being between''). Any particular dog, red thing, or object that is between other things is not a universal, however, but is an ''instance'' of a universal. That is, a universal type (''doghood''), property (''redness''), or relation (''betweenness'') '' inheres'' in a particular object (a specific dog, red thing, or object between other things).


Platonic realism

Platonic realism holds universals to be the
referent A referent () is a person or thing to which a name – a linguistic expression or other symbol – refers. For example, in the sentence ''Mary saw me'', the referent of the word ''Mary'' is the particular person called Mary who is being spoken o ...
s of general terms, such as the '' abstract'', nonphysical, non-mental entities to which words such as "sameness", "circularity", and "beauty" refer. Particulars are the referents of proper names, such as "Phaedo," or of definite descriptions that identify single objects, such as the phrase, "that hoe over there". Other metaphysical theories may use the terminology of universals to describe physical entities. Plato's examples of what we might today call universals included mathematical and geometrical ideas such as a circle and natural numbers as universals. Plato's views on universals did, however, vary across several different discussions. In some cases, Plato spoke as if the perfect circle functioned as the
form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data * ...
or blueprint for all copies and for the word definition of ''circle''. In other discussions, Plato describes particulars as "participating" in the associated universal. Contemporary realists agree with the thesis that universals are multiply-exemplifiable entities. Examples include by D. M. Armstrong, Nicholas Wolterstorff, Reinhardt Grossmann, Michael Loux.


Nominalism

Nominalists hold that universals are not real mind-independent entities but either merely concepts (sometimes called "conceptualism") or merely names. Nominalists typically argue that properties are abstract particulars (like tropes) rather than universals. JP Moreland distinguishes between "extreme" and "moderate" nominalism. Examples of nominalists include the medieval philosophers Roscelin of Compiègne and
William of Ockham William of Ockham, OFM (; also Occam, from la, Gulielmus Occamus; 1287 – 10 April 1347) was an English Franciscan friar, scholastic philosopher, apologist, and Catholic theologian, who is believed to have been born in Ockham, a small vil ...
and contemporary philosophers W. V. O. Quine,
Wilfred Sellars Wilfrid Stalker Sellars (May 20, 1912 – July 2, 1989) was an American philosopher and prominent developer of critical realism, who "revolutionized both the content and the method of philosophy in the United States". Life and career His father ...
,
D. C. Williams Donald Cary Williams (28 May 1899 – 16 January 1983), usually cited as D. C. Williams, was an American philosopher and a professor at both the University of California Los Angeles (from 1930 to 1938) and at Harvard University (from 1939 to 1967 ...
, and Keith Campbell.


Ness-ity-hood principle

The ness-ity-hood principle is used mainly by English-speaking philosophers to generate convenient, concise names for universals or
properties Property is the ownership of land, resources, improvements or other tangible objects, or intellectual property. Property may also refer to: Mathematics * Property (mathematics) Philosophy and science * Property (philosophy), in philosophy an ...
.Feldman (2005), p. 25. According to the Ness-Ity-Hood Principle, a name for any universal may be formed by taking the name of the
predicate Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...
and adding the suffix "ness", "ity", or "hood". For example, the universal that is distinctive of left-handers may be formed by taking the predicate "left-handed" and adding "ness", which yields the name "left-handedness". The principle is most helpful in cases where there is not an established or standard name of the universal in ordinary English usage: What is the name of the universal distinctive of chairs? "Chair" in English is used not only as a subject (as in "The chair is broken"), but also as a predicate (as in "That is a chair"). So to generate a name for the universal distinctive of chairs, take the predicate "chair" and add "ness", which yields "chairness".


See also

* Hypostatic abstraction *
Philosophy of mathematics The philosophy of mathematics is the branch of philosophy that studies the assumptions, foundations, and implications of mathematics. It aims to understand the nature and methods of mathematics, and find out the place of mathematics in people' ...
* Sortal *
Transcendental nominalism Ian MacDougall Hacking (born February 18, 1936) is a Canadian philosopher specializing in the philosophy of science. Throughout his career, he has won numerous awards, such as the Killam Prize for the Humanities and the Balzan Prize, and been a ...
* '' The Secret of Hegel'' *
Universality (philosophy) In philosophy, universality or absolutism is the idea that universal facts exist and can be progressively discovered, as opposed to relativism, which asserts that all facts are merely relative to one's perspective. Absolutism and relativism have ...
*
Universalism Universalism is the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have universal application or applicability. A belief in one fundamental truth is another important tenet in universalism. The living truth is seen as more far-reaching th ...


Notes


References

* Feldman, Fred (2005). "The Open Question Argument: What It Isn't; and What It Is", ''Philosophical Issues'' 15, ''Normativity''. * Loux, Michael J. (1998). ''Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction'', N.Y.: Routledge. * Loux, Michael J. (2001). "The Problem of Universals" in ''Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings'', Michael J. Loux (ed.), N.Y.: Routledge, pp. 3–13. * MacLeod, M. & Rubenstein, E. (2006). "Universals", ''The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', J. Fieser & B. Dowden (eds.).
link
* Moreland, J. P. (2001). ''Universals'', McGill-Queen's University Press/Acumen. * Price, H. H. (1953). "Universals and Resemblance", Ch. 1 of ''Thinking and Experience'', Hutchinson's University Library. * Rodriguez-Pereyra, Gonzalo (2008). "Nominalism in Metaphysics", ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
link


Further reading

* Aristotle, '' Categories''
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* Aristotle, ''
Metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
''
link
* Armstrong, D. M. (1989). ''Universals: An Opinionated Introduction'', Westview Press.
link
* Bolton, M., “Universals, Essences, and Abstract Entities”, in: D. Garber, M. Ayers, red., ''The Cambridge History of Seventeenth-Century Philosophy'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), vol. I, pp. 178–211 * Libera, Alain de (2005), ''Der Universalienstreit. Von Platon bis zum Ende des Mittelalters'', München, Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 2005 * Plato, ''Phaedo''

* Plato, ''Republic'' (esp. books V, VI, VII and X)

* Plato, ''Parmenides''

* Plato, ''Sophist''

* Quine, W. V. O. (1961). "On What There is," in ''From a Logical Point of View'', 2nd/ed. N.Y: Harper and Row. * Russell, Bertrand (1912). "The World of Universals," in ''The Problems of Philosophy'', Oxford University Press. * Russell, Bertrand (1912b). "On the Relation of Universals and Particulars"
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* Swoyer, Chris (2000). "Properties", ''The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Edward N. Zalta (ed.).
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* Williams, D. C. (1953). "On the Elements of Being", ''Review of Metaphysics'', vol. 17.


External links


Chrysippus – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Chrysippus – Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
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