Plato’s Theory of Forms and Metaphysical Dualism
Key Concepts in Plato’s Philosophy
Man
What essentially defines man is his tripartite structure: the rational soul (immortal), which is the faculty of rational knowledge; the irascible soul, which is character or psychic force; and the concupiscent soul, which is desire and the ability to undergo passions. The rational part is intelligible, superior, and independent of the body.
Analogy
This is a reasoning based on the existence of similar attributes in different beings. For example, the sun is analogous to the Idea of the Good.
Cognizable
For Plato, only intelligible beings are truly cognizable, as only they allow for true knowledge.
The State
A political organization should make its citizens just. Its structure consists of three classes: producers, guardians, and rulers. The state will be just when each social group embodies its corresponding virtue:
- Producers: Temperance
- Guardians: Courage
- Rulers: Wisdom
The Idea of the Good
This is the supreme Idea that occupies the cusp of being. It is the source of goodness in sensible beings, other Ideas, and both private and public actions. It is the ultimate cause of the existence of all beings.
The Nature of Being
Being is a trait of intelligible beings (the Ideas). They do not come to be or pass away, but simply are. Existing outside of space-time, they neither arise nor perish, and are therefore always identical to themselves.
Multiplicity
This refers to the set of sensible beings that share the same Idea. This multiplicity of sensible beings is contrasted with the unity that characterizes the Idea they participate in.
Intelligible Beings
These are immutable, necessary, and universal beings. They are the real beings and the source of true knowledge. They are the only ones that can be called beings in the truest sense, as they exist in and of themselves.
Sensible Beings
These are material, particular, multiple, changing, and contingent beings. They are born and die; therefore, they are not real beings in the same sense as the intelligible beings, from which they are separate and to which they are ontologically inferior.
Belief (Pistis)
Belief is a form of opinion obtained from knowing sensible things. True knowledge, which pertains to intelligible beings, is significantly superior.
Utensils and Figurines
In Plato’s analogies, utensils represent artificial beings and figurines represent natural beings. They constitute the higher level of sensible beings. Perceiving them produces belief (pistis), the highest form of opinion.
The Offspring of the Good
This represents the sun and highlights two aspects: first, that the sun exists by virtue of the Good, and second, that the sun’s role in the sensible world is analogous to the role of the Good in the intelligible world.
Plato’s Ontological Dualism
Plato argued for a clear ontological dualism, believing in the existence of two kinds of reality or types of worlds: the sensible world and the intelligible world (or the world of Ideas).
The Sensible World consists of particular realities. In it, we find multiplicity, change, generation, and destruction. It is the set of things perceptible by the senses: material, temporal, and spatial things.
In contrast, the Intelligible World consists of universal realities, characterized by unity. This is the world of Ideas (or “Forms”). The Ideas are not subject to change; they are eternal, invisible, immaterial, timeless, and non-spatial. They are known through reason and constitute true reality.
Ideas or Forms are not mere concepts or mental events that exist in the mind; they are extra-mental entities with an objective and independent existence from humanity. The Ideas are the causes of things. While the Ideas are the authentic reality, Plato, unlike Parmenides, does not deny all reality to the sensible world. Although ontologically inferior to the Ideas, sensible things also possess a kind of being, which is given to them through imitation of or participation in the Forms.
The task of the Demiurge is to shape the material world, which has always existed, to resemble the Ideas as much as possible.