Plato's Theory of Forms: Understanding True Reality

Plato's Theory of Forms: An Introduction

Plato asserts that the possibility of true knowledge, resting on absolute truths, necessitates the existence of immutable realities.

The World of Forms: True Reality

In Plato's work, the theory of Forms is not developed as such in a single treatise. In the early dialogues, he discusses some Forms, like "beauty," attempting to find their definitions. In the dialogues of his maturity period, he refers to Forms as the fundamental theory of the Platonic school. He also critically examines this theory in his works from old age. Plato posits this reality as an unseen and eternal world of essences, distinct from concrete existences. It is a world of values and "ideal models," independent of human opinion, which he called Forms or Ideas.

Precursors to the Theory of Forms

Plato's rationalistic Theory of Forms draws inspiration from several philosophical elements:

• Socrates' quest for definitions, which represents an attempt to find the essence of what is defined.
• Parmenides' concept of "The One," leading to an abstract notion of reality.
• Pythagorean mathematics (logos).
• Anaxagoras' "Nous" (Mind), as the ordering principle of the cosmos.

Although the theory is rationalistic, Plato also accounts for an irrational element: Necessity, linked to the existence of matter (contrasted with Intelligence or Reason).

Concept and Characteristics of Forms

Concept of a Form

A Form is unique, while its manifestations are multiple. Each unique Form of something is truly unique, immutable, and absolute. This way of understanding Forms creates difficulties when explaining how one can access knowledge. Plato initiates a theme that will have much importance throughout the history of philosophy: the kind of reality that corresponds to the concepts representing particular things and Forms.

Hierarchy of Forms

Types of Forms include mathematical Forms, Forms of values, and Forms of natural things. For Plato, Forms are hierarchically organized, even though there are hierarchies between different sets of Forms. In The Republic, the Form of the Good appears as the supreme Form.

Forms and the Cosmos

The Theory of Forms enables Plato to construct, on one hand, what we today consider "values," and on the other, an interpretation of the universe as an embodiment of an ideal order. The Demiurge shapes the cosmos in accordance with the Forms, as he tells us in Timaeus.