Universals

Universals are properties predicated as a class of conceptual or abstract objects, for example, Platonic forms or archetypes, or as a class of, necessarily abstract, relations. Concrete things that exemplify or embody universal properties are particulars. Colours, for example, are universals, coloured objects are, so far as their colour is concerned, particulars. Logical or Platonic realism accorded objective existence to universals. The philosophy characterized as nominalistic, was so-called because the universals were considered to exist only as names, i.e. mental constructs, or concepts.