Note 1 — Chapter I · THE REFORMATION

Realism derived from the doctrine, ascribed to Plato by Aristotle, that “universals,” the ideas of species, etc., exist independently of individual objects, and existed before them. This is “Extreme Realism,” put in the formula, universalia ante rem. Nominalism was the doctrine that only individuals have real existence, and that ideas of species are but names. There was an intermediate position, that of Aristotle, that universals exist in individual objects—universalia in re. This, known as Moderate Realism, is but a verbal compromise, which does not concede the Realist claim. The motive for that lay in the religious bias to claim for ideas, or “spiritual” concepts, a higher validity and reality than it accords to “material” things. The same tendency expressed itself in the Moslem doctrine that the Koran is uncreated and eternal. ↑