  But things are no better if we understand Moore’s definition in terms of universals, for on a Platonist theory of properties the universal could exist independently of any particular instance of it. If this is true, it will be true of any property. This does not, therefore, pick out what distinguishes the natural from the non-natural. So if we are talking of property instances then no properties can be separated from the things that instantiate them, and if we are talking of property types (properties as universals), then, at least on some views, all of them can be separated.