Plato Summary
Plato- The Theory of Forms
Plato (ca.428-ca.347 B.C.E)
Socrates Pupil, born during the Peloponnesian wars he reaped the benefits of Golden Age and insecurities of the post-war era.
Established the first Philosophy school, the Academy
Wrote dozens of treatises using Socrates dialogue and many of them were actual conversations and others fiction. It’s hard to distinguish his from Socrates since the later wrote nothing.
Plato most famous treatise “the Republic”.
It asks two questions: “What is the meaning of justice?”, “What is the nature of a just society?”
To answer these two questions he came up with his famous theory of Forms.
According to Plato, reality consists of two realms:
First, there is the physical world, the world that we can observe with our five senses.
Second, there is a world made of eternal perfect “forms” or “ideas.”
What are “forms”?
Plato says they are perfect templates that exist somewhere in another dimension (He does not tell us where). These forms are the ultimate reference points for all objects we observe in the physical world. They are more real than the physical objects you see in the world.
Justice, love and beauty are all stand as unchanging and eternal models for the many individual and particular instance of each in the sensory world.
According to Plato, Forms descend from an ultimate form “the Form of the Good”, however Plato never located or defined it.
“The ultimate Good”, knowledge of which is the goal of dialectical inquiry, is the most difficult to reach.
He uses in the Republic a literary device called “Allegory” by which the literacy meaning of the text implies hidden meaning like symbols.
He used Allegory to illustrate the problem that facing psyche (mind) in its ascent to knowledge of the imperishable and unchanging Forms.
The Allegory of the cave
Idealism as a key theory principle in his work which means that:
Reality lies in the realm of unchanging Forms, rather than in sensory objects.
Platonic
Plato (ca.428-ca.347 B.C.E)
Socrates Pupil, born during the Peloponnesian wars he reaped the benefits of Golden Age and insecurities of the post-war era.
Established the first Philosophy school, the Academy
Wrote dozens of treatises using Socrates dialogue and many of them were actual conversations and others fiction. It’s hard to distinguish his from Socrates since the later wrote nothing.
Plato most famous treatise “the Republic”.
It asks two questions: “What is the meaning of justice?”, “What is the nature of a just society?”
To answer these two questions he came up with his famous theory of Forms.
According to Plato, reality consists of two realms:
First, there is the physical world, the world that we can observe with our five senses.
Second, there is a world made of eternal perfect “forms” or “ideas.”
What are “forms”?
Plato says they are perfect templates that exist somewhere in another dimension (He does not tell us where). These forms are the ultimate reference points for all objects we observe in the physical world. They are more real than the physical objects you see in the world.
Justice, love and beauty are all stand as unchanging and eternal models for the many individual and particular instance of each in the sensory world.
According to Plato, Forms descend from an ultimate form “the Form of the Good”, however Plato never located or defined it.
“The ultimate Good”, knowledge of which is the goal of dialectical inquiry, is the most difficult to reach.
He uses in the Republic a literary device called “Allegory” by which the literacy meaning of the text implies hidden meaning like symbols.
He used Allegory to illustrate the problem that facing psyche (mind) in its ascent to knowledge of the imperishable and unchanging Forms.
The Allegory of the cave
Idealism as a key theory principle in his work which means that:
Reality lies in the realm of unchanging Forms, rather than in sensory objects.
Platonic