It goes back much further than that. GP linked to the Wikipedia article on universals. During the late middle ages there was a furious debate about whether spec

It goes back much further than that. GP linked to the Wikipedia article on universals. During the late middle ages there was a furious debate about whether species (taking the term in its very broad philosophical sense) could be said to exist, or whether all categorization was done by human beings applying labels. To me, it seems one of the most fundamental questions in all philosophy.