Universals and Particulars

Universals and Particulars 

"In metaphysics, a universal is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are abstract repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things."

    The idea of universals and particulars is a long-lasting philosophical debate regarding whether there are certain concepts or properties that exist independently of individual objects/particulars or whether everything is particular and no such universal exists. The former describes Realism while the latter is known as Nominalism. In this blog article, an overview of Plato's, Aristotle's, Ibn Taymiyyah's, and the Nominalist view on the subject. 

    Plato believed that there were objective and eternal "Forms" that exist independently of the physical world or outside the cave according to his famous analogy. He believed that the physical world is just a mere reflection of these Forms. For example, there is a Form of a "perfect circle," which is perfect and eternal, whereas any physical circle we observe is merely an imperfect copy of the perfect circle Form. The Forms are universal and can be known through reason or intuition, rather than through the particular. For Plato, knowledge of the Forms is the only true knowledge. 

    Aristotle disagreed with Plato's philosophy and believed the universal existed within the particular. He argued that there are no Forms that exist independently of particulars and that universals are simply common features or properties that are shared by multiple things. For example, the property of "redness" exists only in individual red objects, and there is no universal "redness" that exists independently of those objects. Furthermore, Aristotle believed that knowledge comes from the study of particulars, and that understanding the commonality of  particulars leads to knowledge of the universal.

    This is why in Raphael’s painting, “The School of Athens”, Plato is shown pointing up to signify the greater world of the Forms while Aristotle has his palm facing the world to show that the universal exists in the particular.  

    In the Islamic paradigm, Ibn Taymiyyah believed in the existence of universals, but he had a different view on their nature compared to the two philosophers above. He believed that universals exists only in the mind rather than in the external world as Platonic Realism or Aristotelian universals. Universals are mental constructs that one uses to categorize particular things that share common features. For example, the concept of "redness" is a universal located in one’s mental construct that is used to group together particular things that are red. This can be described as Moderate Realism or Conceptualism. 

    Nominalists, on the other hand, argue that there are no universals concepts and that these concepts are merely names or labels that are given to particulars that share certain properties. For example, the concept of "redness" is simply a label given to a group of particulars that happen to be red rather than a universal existing amongst all red things. Nominalists believe that knowledge comes from observing particular things and grouping them based on their similarities, rather than from abstract universals.