Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

ABSTRACTION. 103
Porphyry, would have a tendency rather to excite than to damp
curiosity; and accordingly we have reason to believe, that the
controversy to which it relates continued, during the dark ages,
to form a favorite subject of discussion. The opinion which
was prevalent was, (to use the scholastic language of the times,)
that universals do not exist before things, nor after things, but in
things; that is, (if I may be allowed to attempt a commentary
upon expressions to which I do not pretend to be able to annex
very precise notions,) universal ideas have not (as Plato thought)
an existence separable from individual objects; and therefore
they could not have existed prior to them in the order of time;
nor yet, (according to the doctrine of the Stoics,) are they mere
conceptions of the mind, formed in consequence of an examination and comparison of particulars; but these ideas or forms
are from eternity united inseparably with that matter of which
things consist; or, as the Aristotelians sometimes express themselves, the forms of things are from eternity immersed in matter. The reader will, I hope, forgive me for entering into these
details, not only on account of their connection with the observations which are to follow; but as they relate to a controversy
which, for many ages, employed all the ingenuity and learning
in Europe; and which, therefore, however frivolous in itself,
deserves the attention of philosophers, as one of the most curious events which occur in the history of the human mind.
Such appears to have been the prevailing opinion concerning
the nature of universals, till the eleventh century; when a new
doctrine, or (as some authors think) a doctrine borrowed from
the school of Zeno, was proposed by Roscelinus; and soon after
very widely propagated over Europe by the abilities and eloquence of one of his scholars, the celebrated Peter Abelard.
According to these philosophers, there are no existences in nature corresponding to general terms; and the objects of our attention in all of our general speculations are not ideas, but
words.
In consequence of this new doctrine, the schoolmen gradually
formed themselves into two sects; one of which attached itself
to the opinions of Roscelinus and abelard, while the other ad