ABSTRACT
Words are fruitful aids in the fixation of general images. They help the abstract type which thereby gains a new kind of clarity, a sensuous support by means of the audible word. General ideas thus come to be regarded as the subjective counterpart of actually existing substances endowed with powers which are interpreted as the forces behind and individual things, as the sources from which the particular takes its origin. The dangerous consequences of the opposite view are manifest from the fact that from Plato to Hegel and from Hegel right up to the present time, philosophers have regarded their concepts as endowed with an objective existence, and have supposed that there were Things-in-themselves corresponding to them as such. As opposed to particulars, they have been regarded as the permanent essence, and this permanent essence has been hypostasized into an energic thing interpreted as the general basis of particular phenomena.
