plato theory of forms

plato theory of forms


PHILOSOPHY 150-21
PLATO’S THEORY OF FORMS
Plato's Theory of Forms successfully expresses his belief of the relationship between the body and soul as one of duality. The essence of Plato's concept lies in his theory, which demonstrates that beyond the material world we live in (and believe to be the only life humans can experience) is an eternal world which we all have a latent knowledge of. The philosopher believes that our experience of life is merely of life on a shallow level; compiled not from knowledge but sensory opinion.
Plato believes that the reason most people cannot fathom the universal existence of forms because we have not been philosophically enlightened. What we see on Earth is artificial reality, not reality itself but shadows of the 'ideal' or perfect forms in the ideal world. At the heart of this lies perfect truth, love, beauty and justice; it is these interchangeable things Plato considers to be real, not solid objects like tables and bodies that we believes from sensory experience to be real things, as they are constantly evolving.. Plato speaks of these entities only through the characters (primarily Socrates) of his dialogues who sometimes suggest that these Forms are the only true objects of study that can provide us with genuine knowledge; thus even apart from the very controversial status of the theory, Plato's own views are much in doubt . Plato spoke of Forms in formulating a possible solution to the problem of universals.
Forms exist in their own right in the world of the Forms. They exist separately from their Particulars. The Form of Beauty therefore exists separately from our ideas about beauty and from
beautiful people/places/things and so on.
Forms are not made of or dependent upon physical matter unlike Particulars, which are, and are therefore changeable and imperfect. Plato saw Forms as the source of all knowledge and as such, the Forms must be eternally consistent and unchanging. Being so would suggest that they are...

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