Boethius's position in the history of philosophy is curious. He is at best a competent representative of the Neoplatonic commentary tradition of late antiquity. His decision, however, to make that tradition available in Latin led to his having a deep and lasting influence on the development of philosophy.

It was Boethius's answer to the question left open by Porphyry that provided the basic material for later disputes over universals. Boethius argues that no extramental thing can be present entire in each of many individuals. He offers, without apparently noticing a difference, two accounts of universal concepts that are not obviously compatible. In one he maintains that mind is able to separate, or abstract, from an individual that which makes it the kind of thing it is: its species. In the other, inductive, account, he claims that the mind collects "likenesses...