Overview Of Plato And Plato's Theory Of The Four Forms

According to this allegory, which is related to Plato's Theory of Forms", the "Forms" (or Ideas"), own the highest and most fundamental kind of reality, and not the material world of change known to us through sensation. Real knowledge composes of knowledge of the Forms only. It is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society and to attempt to impart knowledge to the "prisoners".

To understand Plato’s argument, he gives us an interesting theory, his theory of forms. If we take the example of a beautiful person, not only does Plato say that there is the form of beauty and there is the beautiful person, but he also seems to say that there is the beauty present in that person which is distinct both from the person and from the form. (Lecture from 11/27). This beauty can come and go, and must, either withdraw or disappear at the approach of ugliness.

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

Plato's views on Forms, Ideas, and Knowledge are all expressed beautifully in the allegory of

Plato was a philosopher who was born in Athens (470-390 BCE), and was also a student of Socrates. He felt that intelligence and one’s perception belonged to completely independent realms or realities. He believed that general concepts of knowledge were predestined, or placed in the soul before birth even occurred in living things. Plato believed that the cosmos was intelligible, and the the universe was mathematically understandable. He believes that mathematical objects could be seen as perfect forms. Forms, a doctoral of Plato, can be understood as an everyday object or idea, which does not, exists in the everyday realm, but merely is existent in the hypothetical realm or reality.

To introduce the argument, Socrates explains the theory of Forms. Forms are the intangible and visible components of anything that exists. They are the larger ideas that compose the reasons for why something exists. This being said, these are merely concepts that cannot be changed but rather they stand concrete in their meanings and ideals. An example of a Form is beauty. We can only recognize things that are beautiful because “all beautiful things are beautiful by the Beautiful” and they belong to the Form of beauty (Plato, pg. 138). Beauty only exists because it is an idea in which things fall into a category. Something can be recognized as beautiful, and it is therefore placed under the Form of beauty, and therefore, all things beautiful share the same meaning. The meaning of beauty will never be changed because it is a permanent idea that holds to be true. This issue stems into the idea that forms can change between each other, while still possessing individual meanings. Take the forms of tallness and smallness for example:

We are introduced to the Forms in Plato’s dialogue the Phaedo. The Theory of Forms says that

Plato's theory of forms, also called his theory of ideas, states that there is another world, separate from the material world that we live in called the "eternal world of forms". This world, to Plato, is more real than the one we live in. His theory is shown in his Allegory of the Cave (from The Republic, Book VII), where the prisoners only live in what they think is a real world, but really it is a shadow of reality. According to Plato, to the prisoners in the allegory and to humanity in the material world "truth would be literally nothing but shadows" and he believes us to be as ignorant as the people in the cave. Plato followed the belief that in order for something to be real it has to be permanent, and as everything in the world we

Plato, being a Socratic apprentice, followed and transcribed the experiences Socrates had in his teachings and search of understanding. In Plato’s first work, The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates forms the understanding between appearance vs. reality and the deceptions we are subject to by the use of forms. In the cave, the prisoners’ experiences are limited to what their senses can tell them, the shadows on the walls, and their shackles; these appearances are all that they have to form their ideas. When one of the prisoners begins to question his reality he makes his way out of the cave and into the day light. This prisoners understanding of his reality has now expanded, thus the theory of forms; when he returns to the cave to spread the news, the others do not believe him. They have been deceived by their reality and what

Plato, arguably one of the most famous philosophers in history is known for his dialogues and theory of Forms. The theory of Forms argues that ideas (non-physical forms) are more real than tangible objects or what our senses perceive. According to Plato, there is the visible realm and intelligible realm. Reality could be divided into three different levels; the level of appearances, the real level, and the ideal level which he explains through the analogy of the ‘Divided Line’ in The Republic.

Plato explained metaphysics in a way that Heraclitus and Parmenides failed to. Plato had a theory of forms. He used concepts from both philosophers to contribute to his theory. He was influenced by Heraclitus when he said that everything is constantly changing. He was influenced by Parmenides as well when he said that there is no change and everything is One. Both of these contribute to the theory of forms in different ways. Plato grabbed Parmenides idea when he says that there is only one, but added that everything else is a copy, and that creates a form of that object. Heraclitus’ theory contributes here when Plato explains that they fact that there is different forms of an object, does explain that everything is not one and in fact, there can be changes in physical objects. One notion from Heraclitus’ view that was adopted into Plato’s, was the idea of the word becoming. No form itself every changes. Many physical objects become. A physical object is simply, several forms exemplified in a space at that particular moment. Heraclitus said that everything is constantly changing, Plato says, when objects change its simply becoming another form of that object. Parmenides view is adopted in a different way but comes from the same word. The word being, is a word that can be used to explain both Plato’s and Parmenides view on metaphysics. When an object is “being” it’s existing from a form of that object, than object is unchanging, and that’s

“Everything which exist in this world and all things that we see around us are not as they appear to us” this is the core idea behind plato’s theory of forms.From this idea only he moves towards explaining his world of forms or ideas.

The world of sense is at a constant change, so how can the truth be

Even though both Plato and his student Aristotle’s works are considered theoretically less valuable in modern times, as two of the most eminent ancient thinkers in the history of philosophy, their works continue to have great historical value. In the realm of metaphysics, Plato and Aristotle are both regarded as realists, and their philosophical ideas hold some similarities, but Aristotle is more considered as “moderate realist,” compared to Plato as an “absolute realist.” Generally speaking, Plato’s interpretation of “what is real,” reflected in his absolute realism, differs from that of Aristotle’s, reflected in his hylemorphism, to a large extent; besides, Aristotle’s theory of matter and form, is the more convincing one because of the soundness of his arguments and in-depth analysis of the nature of being.

Plato’s ideas regarding the body and the soul relates to his Theory of Forms/Ideas because he explains that the body is just a mere obstacle for the soul. IT makes it sound like when your soul is living its life within the body, its just an illusion, and when your