  (I) The idea of a universal. For example, when we refer to the relation referred to by ‘larger than’, it is because we have an interest in its formal properties that are independent of the contingencies of its instantiation. To say that all that there is are relations and no relata, is perhaps to follow Plato and say that the world of appearances is not properly thought of as part of the content of knowledge. (See Esfeld and Lam 2008: 5, and the opening epigram in Psillos 2006.) This Platonic version of OSR is perhaps what Howard Stein has in mind: