 In the works from the 1240s, Bacon distinguishes the real universal from the mental universal. Hence, the universal as the ultimate basis of predication is not the species as mental intention. Universals in the primary sense as the basis of scientific objectivity are extra-mental. Bacon’s presentation of this issue is complex. Certainly, he is not a complete Platonist in regard to universals. To the objection that since form is individuated through its matter and whatever exists in things must exist in matter as individuated, but the universal is not such a thing, he replies that a universal is either in the mind or in things; if it is not in the former, it has to be in the latter. A universal arises from common matter and common form and so has no need of being immediately individuated: “And because the common matter and common form exist along with the proper matter and form of individuals, the universal is present in this way in singulars” ([OHI, X] 242–243 = TTUM, 36). Hence, one cannot split apart the common matter from the particular matter or the common form from the particular form of a particular individual.