William of Ockham

On Logic

Introduction by John Longeway

Ockham says: "Moreover, it must first be understood that 'particular' is accepted in two ways. In one way the name 'particular' signifies all of that which is one thing and not many things. And in this way, those who hold that a universal is a certain quality of the mind predicable from many — still not as itself but as those many — they have to say that any universal is truly and actually a particular: because just as whenever a word, however common according to convention, is truly and actually a particular and one number because it is one and not many, thus is the intention of the soul, signifying many things in addition, truly and actually a particular and one in number, because it is one and not many things, although it signifies many things."

Original Latin