Scotistic realism

For John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan philosopher, theologian and Catholic priest, universals such as "greenness" and "goodness" exist in reality.

[4][5] In addition, Scotus doesn't think that universals exist in some "third realm" or "Platonic heaven", as Plato thought (i.e.

This opinion was rejected by many later thinkers, such as Peter Abelard, who instead argued that forms are merely mental constructs.

[13] Scotus denied these claims; in his Opus Oxoniense he argued that universals have a real and substantial existence.

[16] Peirce interprets Scotus's idea of individuation or haecceity (thisness) in terms of his own category of "secondness."

When we think of this, we are relating our pointing finger, for example, or a particular sense organ with another individual thing.

Peirce replies that this objection springs from the belief that the real must be wholly independent of reflective activity, i.e., must be a thing in itself.