Peter Abelard in the context of "Spinoza"

In metaphysics, conceptualism is a theory that explains universality of particulars as conceptualized frameworks situated within the thinking mind. Intermediate between nominalism and realism, the conceptualist view approaches the metaphysical concept of universals from a perspective that denies their presence in particulars outside the mind's perception of them. Conceptualism is anti-realist about abstract objects, just like immanent realism is (their difference being that immanent realism accepts there are mind-independent facts about whether universals are instantiated).

French philosophy, here taken to mean philosophy in the French language, has been extremely diverse and has influenced Western philosophy as a whole for centuries, from the medieval scholasticism of Peter Abelard, through the founding of modern philosophy by René Descartes, to 20th century philosophy of science, existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, and postmodernism.

The Montagne Sainte-Geneviève (French pronunciation: [mɔ̃taɲ sɛ̃t ʒənvjɛv]) is a hill overlooking the left bank of the Seine in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It was known to the ancient Romans as Mons Lucotitius. Atop the Montagne are the Panthéon and the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève. The side streets of the Montagne feature bars and restaurants, for example, in the Rue Mouffetard.

Moreover, the former campus of the École Polytechnique, located on the Montagne, now is the Ministry of Research. On the other side of the Montagne lie the rue d'Ulm and the École Normale Supérieure. Around AD 1110, the scholar and philosopher, Peter Abelard, established a school on the Montagne; twenty-six years later, Abelard returned, in the year 1136.

The Abbey of the Paraclete (French: Abbaye du Paraclet) was a Benedictine monastery founded by Peter Abelard in Ferreux-Quincey, France, after he left the Abbey of St. Denis about 1121. Paraclete comes from the Greek word meaning "one who consoles" and is found in the Gospel of John (16:7) as a name for the Holy Spirit.

In 1125 Abelard was elected by the monks of the Abbey at Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys, near Vannes, Brittany, to be their abbot. He turned the Paraclete over to the recently displaced Héloïse, his wife, who had been in a nunnery in Argenteuil before its disbandment by Abbot Suger. The Paraclete was rededicated as a nunnery. Heloise became the Paraclete's abbess and spent the rest of her life there.