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Full Idea
Everything that really exists is an individual.
Gist of Idea
Only individuals exist
Source
Thomas Reid (Essays on Intellectual Powers 5: Abstraction [1785], 6)
Book Ref
Reid,Thomas: 'Inquiry and Essays', ed/tr. Beanblossom /K.Lehrer [Hackett 1983], p.244
A Reaction
Locke is the probable inspiration for this nominalist affirmation. Not sure how high temperature plasma, or the oceans of the world, fit into this. On the whole I agree with him. He is mainly rejecting abstract universals.
Related Idea
Idea 7717 All things that exist are particulars [Locke]
| 11874 | Real identity admits of no degrees [Reid] |
| 23649 | No one thinks two sheets possess a single whiteness, but all agree they are both white [Reid] |
| 23648 | First we notice and name attributes ('abstracting'); then we notice that subjects share them ('generalising') [Reid] |
| 23652 | We must first conceive things before we can consider them [Reid] |
| 23651 | Universals are not objects of sense and cannot be imagined - but can be conceived [Reid] |
| 23650 | Only individuals exist [Reid] |