We can seek the essence of law, legal institutions. Universals, like truth, justice, goodness, humanity, beauty, really exist, independently of our language or structure of thought. Universals don t really exist. All that exists are concepts and terms of language that refer in a general way to many things. General Tendencies of Platonists and Nominalists Platonists tend to be more rationalistic, open to metaphysical theories, including the irreducibility of human being to physical processes.
Nominalists tend to be more empirical and skeptical.
In addition, they tend toward more materialistic and reductionistic accounts of human being. Widely accepted by nominalists, including positivists. Tends to be rejected by Platonists, natural lawyers. When we discover the essence of the law, we learn both what the law truly is, and what it ought to be. Legal Positivism Discovering what the law is tells us very little about what it ought to be.