The process of making something apply universally or globally; extending principles, practices, or phenomena to have universal scope or validity. Often used in ethics and philosophy.
From Latin 'universus' (whole, entire) literally meaning 'turned into one,' from 'uni-' (one) and 'versus' (turned). The concept evolved through medieval scholastic philosophy discussing universal versus particular truths.
Kant's famous ethical test was universalization - asking 'what if everyone did this?' It's like a moral thought experiment where you scale up your personal choice to see if it would work for all humanity!
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