Concept
Problem of universals
Overview
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 beyond those objects? And if a property exists separately from objects, what is the nature of that existence?"
The problem of universals relates to various inquiries closely related to metaphysics, logic, and epistemology, as far back as Plato and Aristotle, in efforts to define the mental connections humans make when understanding a property such as shape or color to be the same in nonidentical objects.
Universals are qualities or relations found in two or more entities. As an example, if all cup holders are circular in some way, then circularity may be considered a universal property of cup holders. Similarly, if one has a set of seven red and three blue balls, it would seem that though the set comprises ten entities (balls), there are only two colors therein—each being shared by multiple balls. Many properties can be universal: being human, red, male or female, liquid or solid, big or small, etc.
Philosophers agree that human beings can talk and think about universals, but disagree on whether universals exist in reality beyond mere thought and speech.
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
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Thereafter, however, he corrected this opinion, no longer maintaining that the same quality was the essence of all things, but that, rather, it manifested itself in them through diverse ways. This problem of universals is ever the most vexed one among logicians, to such a degree, indeed, that even Porphyry, writing in his "Isagoge" regarding universals, dared not attempt a final pronouncement thereon, saying rather…
Peter Abelard, Historia Calamitatum
States what Problem of universals is; the author is tied to Problem of universals in the knowledge graph.
A fundamental error is seldom expelled from philosophy by a single victory. It retreats slowly, defends every inch of ground, and often, after it has been driven from the open country, retains a footing in some remote fastness. The essences of individuals were an unmeaning figment arising from a misapprehension of the essences of classes, yet even Locke, when he extirpated the parent error, could not shake himself…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
States what Problem of universals is; the author is tied to Problem of universals in the knowledge graph.
We also come to think of objects which are only _problematic_, or not yet definitely representable, as well as of objects imagined in all their details. An object which is problematic is defined by its relations only. We think of a thing _about_ which certain facts must obtain. But we do not yet know how the thing will look when realized--that is, although conceiving it we cannot _imagine_ it.
William James, Psychology
States what Problem of universals is; the author is tied to Problem of universals in the knowledge graph.
Philosophers who discussed Problem of universals
- The Name of the Rose
- Boethius
- Anthony Quinton
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Peter Abelard
- Charles Sanders Peirce
- Porphyry of Tyre
- Antisthenes
- Cornelius Van Til
- Keith Campbell (philosopher)
- Roscellinus
- Jerome of Prague
- Raimbert of Lille
Related ideas
- Empiricism
- Cognition
- Udayana
- Natural kind
- Nelson Goodman
- Quality (philosophy)
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- John Stuart Mill
- Alexander of Aphrodisias
- Categories (Aristotle)
- Isagoge
- Substantial form
- Metaphysics
- Geometry
- Boethius
- Ibn Khaldun
- Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet
- David Malet Armstrong
- Nominalism
- Thomas Aquinas
- Anthony Quinton
- Anti-realism
- Ontology
- Observation
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Analytic philosophy.