In the middle ages 57

particularized; man's act of thinking, the shape of

an animal, the height of a plant, the activity of a

chemical molecule, — everything that exists, exists in

the condition of particularity. Scholastic philoso-

phy is pluralistic; it regards the real world as a

collection of individuals and particulars.^^

Individuality when applied to a human being is

called personality. Throughout the twelfth cen-

tury the philosophers are unanimous in repeating

the words of Boethius: persona est rationalis na-

turae individua substantial^

For a long time, the schools had oscillated be-

tween the extreme realism which taught with Plato

that universal essences, such as humanity, have a

real existence, and the anti-realism which denied

the existence of such realities. But by the twelfth

century the debate had been closed in favor of anti-

realism. Notwithstanding their various shades of

difference,^^ the theory of respectus advanced by

Adelard of Bath in Laon and in Paris, the doctrine

of status taught by Walter of Mortagne, the so-

called "indifference-theory" and the "collection-

theory" reechoed by the anonymous author of the

De Generihus et Speciehus, — all of these theories,

mentioned by John of Salisbury in his 3Ietalogi-

cus,^^ agree in maintaining that universal essences

16 See below. Chapter IX.

17 Boethius, Be duabvs naturis.

^В«Cf. my Uiatolre de la Phihsnphie Medievale, pp. 217-^21.

19 II, 17.

58 PHILOSOPHY AND CIVILIZATION

could not exist, and that only the individual pos-

sesses real existence.

Hence, the human perfection which constitutes

human reality is of the same kind in each person, —

king or subject, seigneur or vassal, master or ser-

vant, rich or poor, these all have a similar essence.

The reality that constitutes the human person ad-

mits of no degrees. According to scholastic philos-

ophy, a being is either man or not man. No one

man can be more or less man than another, al-

though each of us possesses more or less powerful

faculties which produce more or less perfect acts.^В°

In this sense Abaelard and Gilbert de la Porree,

and scores of others, agree with Peter the Venerable

and declare in philosophical terms, based on meta-

physical principles, that "serfs are no less and no

more human beings than are their masters."

But Abaelard went a step further. As has been

only recently disclosed by the important discovery

of his Glossidae super Porphy?ium,^^ we can now

say definitely, that to Abaelard belongs the great

credit of having solved the problem of the universal

in tlie form that was followed throughout the

twelfth, the thirteenth, and the fourteenth centuries.

Indeed, to the metaphysical doctrine, Abaelard adds

20 See ch. IX.

21 By Grubniann and CJcyer in the libraries of Milan and ]>unel.

For the publication of tiiis important text, see Bcrnhard Geyer,

"Peter Abaelards ])hilosophi,sdic Schriften. I. Die Logica Ingredi-

entibus. 1. Die Glossen zu Porphyrius," (Beitrdge zur Oeschichte

der Philosophic des Miftelnlter.s, Bd. XXT, Heft 1, Miinster, 1919).