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REALISM The Platonic doctrine that universals or essences exist independently of individuals which instantiate them. Realism in this sense is opposed to nominalism. In its extreme form, it supposes that there is some kind of Platonic realm where universals exist timelessly and that particulars are imperfect copies of their universal counterparts. Aristotle’s realism was more moderate. He reversed the Platonic doctrine and held that the fullest reality is found in existing particulars in which universals inhere. But he also attributed reality to universals. Those who accept this doctrine today champion the reality of natural classes and abstract entities and such ‘univerals’ as laws and properties (including moral properties) rather than ‘Platonic forms’.