Universals persist because reality always falls short of possibility

Evidence

It seems that the persistence of these untranslatable universals as nodal points of thought reflects the unhappy consciousness of a divided world in which “that which is” falls short of, and even denies, “that which can be.” The irreducible difference between the universal and its particulars seems to be rooted in the primary experience of the inconquerable difference between potentiality and actuality—between two dimensions of the one experienced world. The universal comprehends in one idea the possibilities which are realized, and at the same time arrested, in reality. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 741

Categorization

• XREF: The potentiality/actuality tension grounds the one-dimensionality thesis the whole book explores — bridges to the reader’s attention-economy framing of flattened possibility. — connects to: Philosophic universals designate unrealized potentialities rather than existing states — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 753; Universality is the primitive soul’s initial stage, not its final truth — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 327; Reality never conforms to abstract theoretical schemas.

Broader Connections

• Reality never conforms to abstract theoretical schemas. #corroborates (0.85)