among the proponents of the unity of existence, then the absolute without condition is, in their view, the subject matter of divine science (1), which they regard as supreme wisdom and first philosophy. For absolute existence without condition is divided into the necessary and the possible, cause and effect, and substance and accident. This is the subject matter (2) of what they regard (3) as the highest science, which investigates existence and its concomitants.

It is well known that existence which is divided into necessary and possible cannot itself be the Necessary Existence—the absolute conditioned by absoluteness. This divided existence is what they call the natural universal, and they dispute whether it exists in external reality. The correct analysis is that it exists in external reality as something determinate, not as a universal. Thus, what is universal in the minds exists among concrete entities, but it does not exist as a universal.

Whoever says that the natural universal exists in external reality, intending this meaning, is correct.

But if he says that (4) there is something in external reality that is itself universal in external reality—as is implied by the statements of many of those who have written on logic and metaphysics—and claims that there exists in external reality an absolute, universal human being, [an absolute, universal horse] (5), and an absolute animal