Aristotle’s contribution to the philosophy of the individual, which is still followed today, lies in his critique of Platonism, and, by extension, of its own uniqueness. The individual thing, in which the universal is represented as the particular, is excluded from the world of ideas. Thus, Aristotle’s argument against Platonism was also an argument for the uniqueness of the individual. The individual thing, a form that has been fused into a specific matter, is open to all possible forms in the abstract. However, it has chosen to take on a specific form, thereby achieving actual existence. The idea is pure being and therefore eternal; all the particular objects created to explain it are mortal and limited, coming and going, and therefore a part of space and time.