Universals vs. Particulars
As much as I like the idea of being one, I am not an art guy. I would like to think that it is mostly because I haven’t given myself enough time to really learn about it. I can appreciate it though. Fairly recently, like in the last year or two, I was exposed to this painting. I’m sure I have seen it before, but I didn’t really know what it was about, and I didn’t have an appreciation for Plato and Aristotle.
I bring up this painting because of what Plato and Aristotle are doing in it. Plato pointing up into the sky, while Aristotle is gesturing down to earth. They are doing this to signify where truth comes from, or rather where ideals can be located. This is the foundation for their philosophies. I enjoy this painting because it is very philosophical but that is geeking out for another time.
Plato had the idea that there is a Great Being that is pure spirit. He commonly referred it to as The One or The Good. In The One, all truth is contained. The best of the world would have their Form within The One. As an example, if you take a person, there are many people in the world, and they are all different. As men grow, they should mature and be more moral. They will start to act the same. In their conformity, they become more like the ideal man, the man that is contained within The One that all men are shooting to become like. There is one universal man that is contained within The One that all particular men are trying to be like. So, the ideals are above and are spiritual.
To Aristotle, he thought this was ridiculous. There was nothing in nature that gave rise to the idea of The One. Rather, Aristotle looked to the world that was around him, observed how men acted, noticed what the best men did, and called the average of the conglomerate the ideal. What do the best men do? That is what the best is. He looked to the particulars, to individual men, in order to find the ideal. The ideals are physical and based upon the world around us.
The question is, which one is right?
For the atheist, he has no answer to any of these questions except for the ones that he makes up. Without a standard for truth, there can be no truth.
For the Christian, the answer is a little different. These questions get into metaphysics, what is the root cause of the world, and epistemology, how do we know things. For the Protestant, the standard for truth is the Bible. We can look to the Word to know things. In Genesis 1, we learn about the creation of the world. God said it, and it happened. I prefer to think that God sang it into existence but that is another story. Either way, God used words, which are abstract things that stand for physical objects, to make those physical objects. This would appear that Plato is mostly right. God had ideas in His head that He spoke into existence. The physical things here match the metaphysical things up there. Plato would hate this idea because he thought the physical world was flawed and needed to be corrected. He knew about sin without knowing about sin. He had no cure for it though. This is why one could say that he was mostly right. This is the metaphysics for the world.
Now, before you accuse me of being a Platonist, or even a Christian Platonist, we have to look at the other side of the argument. How do I know what the ideals are? God may have spoken them into existence, but how do I come to understand what these things are? This is where Aristotle comes into play. I can believe that God had ideals in mind and knew what they were when He created the world, but in order for me to know them, I have to look at the world that is here in front of me. In order to know what a dog is, I look at all the things that look and behave the same and label them as dog. I watch how they interact with each other and how they make more of themselves through breeding. A dog begats another dog. This is the created order. I, as a human, have to look at the particulars in order to understand the universals.
So, from one perspective, Plato is right, and from another perspective, Aristotle is right. They are both true and must be understood together in order to get the whole truth. The amazing thing about all this is this is actually how most of the world works.
One area that I think this is most vital is the area of Bible study. Humans are not born into a vacuum. They are placed into a timeline that has been going since God started it. He placed each of us into the particular place and time that He wanted. He does have a purpose behind it all. This means that we do not think in a vacuum. We are born into a history and a culture. We are born with customs. We are born into a family. All these things influence who we are and how we think. In spite of what many people would say today, all these things are not created equal. Some cultures, customs, and families are wrong and sinful. Since man is born in sin, it is probably safe to say that the vast majority of cultures, customs, and families are sinful. We are born in sin and must repent of our sin.
What does this have to do with Bible study?
How are we to know if we understand the Bible correctly? Well, that would depend upon your standard for truth. The whole point of the Protestant Reformation is that the Bible is the standard for truth. As such, each person should have their own copy of the Bible and study it for themselves. This gets us back to the universals and particulars. There are many systems out there for understand what the Bible says. Each system probably has its problems. Each person again, is born into their culture, customs, and family, and as such they have their own presuppositions about the Bible and the system of thought to understand it.
How is one to study the Bible though: from the universal, or system, that they have grown up with? Or from the particulars, or the individual passages, of the Bible?
I do believe that there is a universal system that God meant for us to find and use to understand the Bible. The way that we are to do this though is through the particulars. It is all about trying to leave the system of thought that you are born into and looking at each passage, paragraph, and book as it stands in order to see the bigger picture. If one starts with the system in place, one can bend passages and verses to mean different things. This is why it is important to look at each passage, to understand the context and history of the passage, and take the passage for what it says. God used word to create the world. He also uses words to communicate to us. We should take Him at His Word and not impose our meaning until His Words. That is dangerous.
By looking at all the particulars, we can come to understand the universals that God built into the system. Each Christian should take the time to do this for themselves. This does take time. It is time well spent though to understand the world and your place in it. So, read your Bible for yourself. Then read some history on the people and times of the Bible. Then read your Bible again. Then read some more history. Then read your Bible. And do this on repeat. Look at the words that God used. They are inspired. He used the words that He used on purpose. There are no such things as accidents when it comes to God. Go and find all the particulars that you can. Eventually, you’ll start to see them form and morph into some universals that others have also discovered throughout history. You’ll also probably see if you study theologians, that in their search for a universal, through their reason, many of them had to ignore some particulars. That isn’t good. Reject those things. All universals should be backed up by particulars. The universals cannot change the particulars. That is flowing the wrong way. The particulars change the universals. Anything else is going to lead to error. So go forth and explore the world, and your Bible.