"It is necessary to appreciate clearly this distinction between knowledge of universals and knowledge of particulars. He affirms that although sensation is the origin of all knowledge, the first ideas awakened in the soul consist of general ideas. Thus a man seeing a body at a distance has at first only the general idea of substance; on approaching nearer and... recognizing many of the particulars which distinguish it as kind... he thus gains a particular idea, in lieu of his first general idea. In this way the mind advances from the universal to the particular. The infant at first calls every man papa, and every woman mamma; afterwards it learns to discriminate individuals. The fallacy here is patent. It confounds an indefinite with a generalized conception. It is a fallacy which leavens ancient speculation."
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Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science
Aristotle: a Chapter from the History of Science, including Analyses of Aristotle's Scientific Writings was written by George Henry Lewes and published in 1864.
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