Editing Universal (metaphysics) (section)

{{short description|Characteristic or qualities that particular things have in common}}
{{redirect|Universals||Universal (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=June 2022}}

In [[metaphysics]], a '''universal''' is what particular things have in common, namely characteristics or qualities. In other words, universals are repeatable or recurrent entities that can be instantiated or exemplified by many particular things.<ref>Price (1953); Loux (1998), p 20.</ref> For example, suppose there are two chairs in a room, each of which is green. These two chairs share the quality of "[[wikt:chairness|chairness]]", as well as "greenness" or the quality of being green; in other words, they share two "universals". There are three major kinds of qualities or characteristics: [[type (metaphysics)|types or kinds]] (e.g. mammal), [[property (metaphysics)|properties]] (e.g. short, strong), and [[relation (metaphysics)|relations]] (e.g. father of, next to). These are all different types of universals.<ref>Loux (2001), p. 4.</ref>

Paradigmatically, universals are ''[[abstract (philosophy)|abstract]]'' (e.g. humanity), whereas [[particular]]s are ''[[concrete (philosophy)|concrete]]'' (e.g. the personhood of Socrates). However, universals are not necessarily abstract and particulars are not necessarily concrete.<ref>Rodriguez-Pereyra (2008), §1.</ref> For example, one might hold that numbers are particular yet abstract objects.  Likewise, some philosophers, such as [[David Malet Armstrong|D. M. Armstrong]], consider universals to be concrete.

Most do not consider [[class (philosophy)|classes]] to be universals, although some prominent philosophers do, such as John Bigelow.