The universals, ideas, or concepts are representative of a reality which exists outside the mind, but not outside individuals. They exist in the individuals as essences, immanent forms, or principles of activity. This solution finds its basis in the classical period in Aristotle , who considers the universal in the world of objective reality as a form immanent in matter. From the union of this form with matter, the universal beings becomes individuated, so that in the world of reality individuals exist in act, while the universal exists only in potency. Such mental signs can also be representative of simple names.
Nominalism is a variant of conceptualism.
In the classical Greek period, this third solution had been advocated in the Empirical and Sensist schools, in the teachings of Sophistic, Stoic, Epicurean and Skeptic philosophy. The problem of universals, which arose through a discussion of the processes of logic, was not slow to insert itself into metaphysical and theological questions. Thus the nominalism of Roscelin went contrary to the dogma of the Trinity, since it logically held that the unity of the divine substance was only a name and the three persons were three distinct substances. This heresy was condemned by the Church in the year 1092. All Rights Reserved.