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...