Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 1 - Institutes of Metaphysic (1875 ed.).djvu/212

184PROP. VI.———— universals—such genera and species as man, animal, and tree—had an actual existence in nature, distinct, of course, from all particular men, animals, or trees. They could not do otherwise; for their master declares that the universal, both in knowledge and in existence, is more real than the particular—meaning thereby that it is more real as an element, but not certainly as a kind, either of cognition or of existence. His followers, however, who mistook his analysis, and at the same time placed implicit reliance on his word, were bound, in consistency, to contend for the independent and concrete existence of universal things. Whether these genera and species were corporeal or incorporeal, they were somewhat at a loss to determine; but that they were real they entertained no manner of doubt. And, accordingly, the doctrine known in the history of philosophy under the name of Realism, was enthroned in the schools, and being supported by the supposed authority of Plato, and in harmony with certain theological tenets then dominant, it kept its ascendancy for a time.

26. Realism, even in its most extravagant form, is not one whit more erroneous than the two doctrines which supplanted it. First came conceptualism. The actual independent existence of genera and species was too ridiculous and unintelligible an hypothesis to find favour with those who deferred