The formula:

« il est un en tous lieux et tout entier en chaque endroit » (“he is one in all places and wholly in each place”) (Pascal, Pensées, « Preuves par discours » I)
defines the universal, opposed to the individual.

The individual includes:
— the general, opposed to the particular;
— the particular, which includes the collective, opposed to the singular.

More precisely

The universal designates that which is one and entirely present to every reality, without being limited by any of them.
It is not an abstract genus that merely subsumes particular cases: it is one, yet non-exclusive; total, yet present everywhere.

Unlike the general — which groups individuals sharing resemblance — the universal is supra-general: it precedes classification and belongs to the order of principle.
Thus, the universal is not a conceptual synthesis but a first reality, of which beings partake according to their own mode.

A descending hierarchy may be outlined:

  1. Universal — one and whole everywhere.
  2. General — common to many individuals (e.g., “animal”).
  3. Particular — a subdivision of the general (e.g., “human”).
  4. Collective — a delimited group (e.g., “the French”).
  5. Singular — a unique individual (e.g., “Socrates”).

The universal is therefore not an abstraction, but the real foundation that each thing reflects, according to the principle of analogy.
It is not added to particularity: it is interiorly expressed in it.

In metaphysical perspective, the universal identifies with the principle (or essence) of which each reality is a participation.
Thus, the most singular also participates in the most universal: nothing is separated from its originating principle.

Further reading

  • Aristotle, Metaphysics; Categories — universals and substance.
  • Plotinus, Enneads — intelligible universal.
  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae — universals and individuation.
  • Duns Scotus, Questions on Metaphysics — univocity and universality.
  • Nicholas of Cusa, De docta ignorantia — coincidence of opposites.
  • Bruno Bérard, Metaphysics for Everyone — universal, essence, and participation.