The Problems of Philosophy Ch. 9

(Originally Written September 22, 2005)

The Problems of Philosophy
Bertrand Russell 
1912

Chapter 9 - The World of Universals

Relations have a being which is not in either physical object or sense data and important to a priori knowledge. 

Plato's 'ideas' are what Russell calls universals. Universals are anything which may be shared by many particulars and is the pure essence of the world. They do not exist in the world of sense or minds but are concepts that can be grasped by sense or minds. They are not physical objects that exist either, but merely abstract concepts like justice.

All sentences must contain at least one universal. Even simplistic sentences contain universals. "I like this" for example contain the particulars "I" and "this". They are particulars because they apply to a specific thing. The word "like" is a universal because "I" can "like" many different things.

"All truths involve universals, and all knowledge of truths involves acquaintance with universals" (Russell, 93).

Universals that are used as adjectives and common nouns express qualities or properties that single things (particulars) have. These have been widely used. However, universals expressed as verbs and prepositions have been widely ignored by philosophy.

The usage of universals as common nouns and adjectives place emphasis on particulars or individual items, whereas the usage of universals as prepositions or verbs place emphasis on relations of individual items. Since the relations of universals has been widely ignored, metaphysical systems have focused on individual items in isolation of the world and ignored the relationship between them. These metaphysical systems include the likes of Spinoza's monism and Leibniz's monadism.  

Universals are not of the mind, that is they exist outside of the scope of our mind. This book has a quality of being white with blue lines and a red cross line. It has a quality of whiteness. This whiteness is universal. The page would be white regardless of if or if not I were stating that it is white. I can say that the thought of the whiteness of the book is in my mind, but cannot say that this book is white because I say it is.

Thoughts, feelings, minds and physical objects exist in time and space; universals exist but they exist in relation to these other things. They have being independent of space and time.