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viduals of a certain class is due to their being called by the same name. It is only the name that is general, and the name does not stand for any positive essence that is present in all the individuals. It means only that the individuals called by one name are different from those to which a different name is given. Thus certain animals are called cow, not because they possess any common essence, but because they are different from all animals that are not cows. So there is no universal but the name with a negative connotation.1
ORDINARY PERCEPTION AND ITS OBJECTS
The Jainas and the Advaita Vedantins 2 adopt the conceptualistic view of the universal. According to them, the universal does not stand for any independent entity over and above the individuals On the other hand, it is constituted by the essential common attributes of the individuals. Hence the universal is not separate from the individuals, but is identical with them in point of existence The two are related by way of identity. The universal has existence, not in our minds only, but in the particular objects of experience It does not however come to them from outside, but is just their common nature. On this view, individuals have," as Mill says, no essences. The Nyaya-Vaiseṣikas accept the realistic view of the universal. According to them, universals are eternal entities which are distinct from, but in here in many individuals (nityatve satyanekasamavetatvam). The universal is the basis of the notion of sameness that we have with regard to all the individuals of a certain class. It is because there is one single essence present in different individuals that they are brought under a class and thought of as essentially the
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1 Vide TB, p 28, Six Buddhist Nyaya Tracts, Pt 5, on Samanya-düṣaṇa-dıkprasărita.
VP, Ch I, Outlines of Jainism, p 115
3 J 8. Mill, System of Logic, p 78 4 SM., 8.
