The Idea of the Form

The Idea of the Form

  • Submitted By: Dredheza
  • Date Submitted: 03/11/2009 7:20 AM
  • Category: Philosophy
  • Words: 520
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 413

All the forms in the universe derive their being from a source which stands above them, and according to Plato, this is called “The Form of the Good”. This source can not be neither a source of a being and knowledge, nor be a being and knowledge. That’s why Plato says that the Good is beyond the being and the knowledge. Plato compares the world of intelligible and the world of being, and makes some analogies about these two worlds. The main points of the analogies are these:
• Because the Sun lights the worlds, it make the objects visible to us, so does the Good, which illuminates intelligible objects such as the Form.
• Sun, because we can see objects, causes these objects to exist, and from the other hand, the Good causes in the Forms their being.
From the Plato’s theory of reality, we come to a conclusion that the Good is the ultimate principle of reality and truth, and also the ultimate object of the soul’s progress.
Plato in his allegory of the Cave, used men chained since they were child in an underground cave. In a higher up distance there is a fire burning behind them, and the light of the fire reflects the shadow of the people that are around the fire to the wall that is in front of the chained people. The people we are chained think that the shadows are real, and a part of the reality. Like them, we are deluded about reality. Like the prisoners, we mistake the unreal with the real. Only after the death, our soul will be free, and we can enjoy the knowledge of being, and this is why Plato is looking forward to die.
Aristotle was one of the philosophers who criticized Plato. He raises the problem of chorismos, which means separation. According to him, because Plato placed the ultimate causes in a transcendent world, he separated those things form the things they are supposed to be the causes of. Aristotle introduced the idea of immanent forms; The Forms exist within things. The picture of the reality is a picture of Form combined with the picture...

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