CHAPTER XI 

 PROBLEMS OF TYPE ANALYSIS 



Historical Background: the Problem of Universals 



THE core of Taine's philosophy, and of his attempt at a 

 science of criticism, is his search for the 'true abstraction', 

 that is, for the natural type which is not merely a formal 

 concept but is, in the fullest sense, concrete. Permanent causes, 

 ideal types, generative facts, elementary moral states, races, essen- 

 tial characters, general characters, master faculties — these are all 

 variations on the same theme, developed in different contexts. 

 What are some of the problems involved in this search? How did it 

 enable Taine to complete his theory and practice of criticism? 



The problem of 'universals' or types has been, not whether or 

 not that word has any meaning, but what that meaning may be. 

 Unless universals 'existed', in some sense, there could be neither 

 science nor communication: the historical and logical controversy, 

 however, has centred rather around the question of how they are 

 to be taken as existing. For the realist, they have had an existence 

 independent of particular individuals; for the nominaUst, only 

 individuals can be said to exist, and universals have therefore 

 been considered to be convenient and sometimes arbitrary labels 

 for groups of individuals. Taine's solution combined elements of 

 bothji and was closest to that of the conceptuaHst, for whom 

 universals are creations of the mind, but for whom they are not 

 arbitrary, since, if properly derived and criticized, they correspond 

 to something real outside the mind. 



Taine's general position can be stated by contrasting it with 

 that of Mill, on the one hand, and of Hegel, on the other. All of 

 Taine's observations concerning abstraction in the essay on Mill 

 involve this issue, explicitly or impHcitly: 'We discover couples; 

 that is to say, real compounds and real connections ... we can search 

 for generating elements into which they may be resolved, and 

 S.A.J. — 10 145 



