How Did Plato Use The Forms
I. Short Answers 1. Plato uses the forms to discuss almost everything. Forms are general concepts that are used to classify different physical concepts. The forms are non physical, mental concepts. Plato utilizes the forms to prove mind-body dualism. The forms are real things, they exist, and are considered to be more real than physical things. It refers to things that are eternal, perfect, unchanging, and universal. The mind is also eternal, not the brain. Forms are concepts or ideas that help categorize objects. The essence of the Forms is concept and this makes it different from physical objects, and for this reason makes it endless. The senses are not the basis of true knowledge, as they are physical, because they are temporary, changing,
…show more content…
imperfect, and particular. The Forms are considered by Plato to be more real than physical objects because they are unchanging. 2.
Plato uses the Forms to try to show that the soul is eternal. He says that the soul and the body are different things, and the body is just a container for the soul. He even goes further by saying that the soul is trying to get back to its pure state. By these statements Plato is saying that the body is physical, which means that it is only temporary, it changes, and imperfect. On the other hand, the soul is non-physical and therefore is eternal, unchanging, perfect and universal. However, this is insufficient information to base his argument that all souls are the same on. All souls are different because every person is different. If the soul and makes a person and every person is different that means that every soul has its own personality or characteristics. This is shown everyday because know two people are exactly alike, not even twins. Aristotle talks about a similar reason for not following the Forms. Aristotle states that if the Forms are supposed to be perfect and unchanging, how is it possible for one thing to be better than the other. For example, it is like saying that beauty is an eternal Form that doesn’t change. However, in fact it does change because has the ability to be more beautiful than
another. 3. In the Phaedo, Plato uses the theory of the Forms to show that the soul doesn’t only exist after the body dies but it also exists before the body is born because there is pre-bodily existence of the soul. The pre-bodily existence that is talked about in the Phaedo is recollection and reincarnation, “I think, Cebes, said he, that is very definitely the case and that we were not deceived when we agreed on this: Coming to life in truth exists, the living come to be from the dead, and the souls of the dead exist.
Furthermore, Socrates, Cebes rejoined, such is also the case that if that theory is true that you are accustomed to mention frequently, that for us learning is no other than recollection. According to this, we must at some previous time have learned what we now recollect. This is possible only if our soul existed somewhere before it took on this human shape. So according to this theory too, the soul is likely to be something immortal.
Cebes, Simmias interrupted, what are the proofs of this? Remind me, for I do not quite recall them at the moment.
There is one excellent argument, said Cebes, namely that when men are interrogated in the right manner, they always give the right answer of their own accord, and they could not do this if they did not possess the knowledge and the right explanation inside them. Then if one shows them a diagram or something else of that kind, this will show most clearly that suck is the case” (Phaedo 72E). This quote from the Phaedo shows that Socrates believed in reincarnation and recollection. 4. Socrates’s gave two reasons as to why he has nothing to fear in dying. The first of his reasons is, “if now, when, as I conceive and imagine God orders me to fulfill the philosophers mission in searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if I disobey the oracle because I was afraid of death, fancying that I was wise when I was not wise.”(Pojman, 13) Socrates’ second reason for not fearing death it is “For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men and their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. It is not this ignorance of disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that man knows what he does not know?”(Pojman, 13). Socrates says that the worst thing that can happen to a good man maybe the best thing that can happen to an evil man.
imperfect, and particular. The Forms are considered by Plato to be more real than physical objects because they are unchanging. 2.
Plato uses the Forms to try to show that the soul is eternal. He says that the soul and the body are different things, and the body is just a container for the soul. He even goes further by saying that the soul is trying to get back to its pure state. By these statements Plato is saying that the body is physical, which means that it is only temporary, it changes, and imperfect. On the other hand, the soul is non-physical and therefore is eternal, unchanging, perfect and universal. However, this is insufficient information to base his argument that all souls are the same on. All souls are different because every person is different. If the soul and makes a person and every person is different that means that every soul has its own personality or characteristics. This is shown everyday because know two people are exactly alike, not even twins. Aristotle talks about a similar reason for not following the Forms. Aristotle states that if the Forms are supposed to be perfect and unchanging, how is it possible for one thing to be better than the other. For example, it is like saying that beauty is an eternal Form that doesn’t change. However, in fact it does change because has the ability to be more beautiful than
another. 3. In the Phaedo, Plato uses the theory of the Forms to show that the soul doesn’t only exist after the body dies but it also exists before the body is born because there is pre-bodily existence of the soul. The pre-bodily existence that is talked about in the Phaedo is recollection and reincarnation, “I think, Cebes, said he, that is very definitely the case and that we were not deceived when we agreed on this: Coming to life in truth exists, the living come to be from the dead, and the souls of the dead exist.
Furthermore, Socrates, Cebes rejoined, such is also the case that if that theory is true that you are accustomed to mention frequently, that for us learning is no other than recollection. According to this, we must at some previous time have learned what we now recollect. This is possible only if our soul existed somewhere before it took on this human shape. So according to this theory too, the soul is likely to be something immortal.
Cebes, Simmias interrupted, what are the proofs of this? Remind me, for I do not quite recall them at the moment.
There is one excellent argument, said Cebes, namely that when men are interrogated in the right manner, they always give the right answer of their own accord, and they could not do this if they did not possess the knowledge and the right explanation inside them. Then if one shows them a diagram or something else of that kind, this will show most clearly that suck is the case” (Phaedo 72E). This quote from the Phaedo shows that Socrates believed in reincarnation and recollection. 4. Socrates’s gave two reasons as to why he has nothing to fear in dying. The first of his reasons is, “if now, when, as I conceive and imagine God orders me to fulfill the philosophers mission in searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if I disobey the oracle because I was afraid of death, fancying that I was wise when I was not wise.”(Pojman, 13) Socrates’ second reason for not fearing death it is “For the fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being a pretence of knowing the unknown; and no one knows whether death, which men and their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. It is not this ignorance of disgraceful sort, the ignorance which is the conceit that man knows what he does not know?”(Pojman, 13). Socrates says that the worst thing that can happen to a good man maybe the best thing that can happen to an evil man.