Moderate realism
The Moderate Realism is a philosophical position within the universals , which began in the Middle Ages and has so far found no definitive solution. It is about the ontological status of general terms : do these exist only in thoughts or are they substantial units of being ( entities )? The strong realism takes the position of Plato that the universals actually exist as substantial existence, completely independent of appearing individual things, like the Platonic ideas (universalia ante rem) . Moderate realism, on the other hand, teaches that the universals exist in and in things and can be grasped by thought, and therefore have objective validity (as universalia in re ). Because this form of realism gives a critical account of the existence of real beings that are independent of human consciousness and also includes the results of the individual sciences, it is also called moderate-critical realism.