Philosophical Works · Chapter
LIX explained
This chapter explains how universals are formed through the mind's use of a single idea to represent multiple similar individual objects.
What happens
This chapter explains how universals are formed through the mind's use of a single idea to represent multiple similar individual objects. It describes the five universals—genus, species, difference, property, and accident—using examples such as the number two, triangles, and right-angled triangles to illustrate how these categories arise from comparing and naming shared characteristics.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Exposition.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This passage marks the story's dramatic climax because it presents the precise moment of epistemological crisi…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Reason and Method
The chapter demonstrates a methodical approach to understanding how the mind forms universal ideas through comparison and abstraction.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
The narrator explains the formation of universals and the five common terms.
Key passages
“Universals arise merely from our making use of one and the same idea in thinking of all individual objects between which there subsists a certain likeness; and when we comprehend all the objects represented by this idea under one name, this term likewise becomes universal.”
Universals are created when we apply a single idea to multiple similar objects and then give that idea a common name.
This defines the origin of universals in the mind's abstraction.
“Finally, if we suppose that of these triangles some are moved and others not, this will be their universal accident; and, accordingly, we commonly reckon five universals, viz. , genus, species, difference, property, accident.”
If some triangles are moving and others are not, that is an accidental feature; thus the five universals are genus, species, difference, property, and accident.
This lists the five categories of universals as traditionally recognized.
