Plato’s Theory of Forms: Key Concepts and Definitions
Plato’s Theory of Forms: Key Concepts
Idea
In the Platonic sense, an idea has value, not only mental but also an absolute reality. It is independent, single, intelligible, immutable, universal, and eternal. Ideas are part of a hierarchical world, in which the supreme idea is the Idea of the Good. Ideas are known by reason, and the science that gives us access to them is dialectic. In the Allegory of the Cave, ideas would match the beings of the exterior.
Good
The Good is the supreme idea of the intelligible world, and it represents what the sun is in the world of sense. The Good, like the sun, is what gives life and light, thus making possible the existence and knowledge of other ideas. In the process of knowing, the last known through the dialectic would be the Idea of the Good. Continuing the moral intellectualism of Socrates, Plato identifies virtue with knowledge, and therefore only he who knows the Idea of the Good will act justly.
Beauty in Itself
Beauty in itself represents the Idea of Beauty, and as such, it is eternal, unique, universal, immutable, and we can only know it through reason. Sensible things that are beautiful imitate or participate in the Idea of Beauty.
Intelligible Realm
The intelligible realm represents the Platonic world of ideas, composed of two regions: that of mathematical entities and that of ideas. This realm can only be known with reason. With discursive reasoning (mathematics), we know the first region, and with pure intelligence, using the dialectic, we agree to the contemplation of ideas.
Visible Realm
In Plato’s philosophy, the visible realm represents the sensible world, which is a copy of the intelligible. This world is material, perishable, changing, multiple, and is known through the senses (opinion). This realm is composed of shadows and images, the knowledge of which is called conjecture, and physical objects, the knowledge of which is called belief.
Truth
For Plato, truth corresponds to the knowledge of ideas through reason, as opposed to the knowledge of the sensible world, which is only an opinion.
Intelligence
This term refers to Plato’s ideas, along with the knowledge of intelligence through the science called dialectic.
Opinion
Opinion is the knowledge of the sensible world of material things, which are perishable and mutable. It is divided into two forms: conjecture, or knowledge of the images and shadows, and belief, or knowledge of physical objects.
Science
For Plato, true knowledge is science, the knowledge of the intelligible world through reason. It encompasses two forms: discursive knowledge, enabling knowledge of mathematical entities, and the dialectic, which allows the knowledge of ideas through pure intelligence.
Genesis
In this excerpt, genesis means origin and life. Just as the sun makes life possible for beings in the sensible world, the supreme Idea of the Good makes possible the existence of other ideas.
Essence
This term refers to Plato’s ideas or forms that are universal, unique, intelligible, imperishable, and immutable, and can only be known through reason. They exist because the Good gives them life and light.
Dialectic
Dialectic is the supreme science in Platonic thought through which, using pure intelligence, we access the contemplation of ideas. It represents the last phase of the process of knowledge that culminates with access to the Idea of the Good.
Arts
Plato, in this passage, uses the term arts to refer to the knowledge of mathematical entities through discursive reasoning, as a prelude to the knowledge of the ideas of dialectic. This sensitive and non-rational knowledge is an intermediate step in the process that leads to the contemplation of ideas. With the arts, Plato refers to geometry, arithmetic, calculus, etc.
Discursive Thought
Discursive thought is using reason to know mathematical entities as a precursor to the knowledge of ideas.
Release from Chains
Plato uses this expression to refer to how the prisoner of the Allegory of the Cave leaves the sensible world and approaches the intelligible. The chains maintain the human soul contemplating only the shadows or images (conjecture), and their rupture allows the promotion abroad through knowledge. This represents the long, slow process of education that allows us to direct our gaze toward ideas.
Looking at the Light
In Platonic philosophy, the light may represent the sun of the sensible world (the fire of the cave) and the Idea of the Good in the intelligible world. To look at the light is to initiate the process of knowledge leading to the contemplation of ideas, even though we have to get used to it because at first it dazzles us.
Rugged, Steep Slope
This is the slow and expensive journey that the human soul (the prisoner) must pass through to move from the sensible world (cave) to the intelligible (exterior). This could be reflected in the different phases of knowledge that Plato proposes, up to the Idea of the Good.
Things Above
This expression refers to Plato’s ideas, independent realities, imperishable and immutable, that are in the intelligible world (outside of the cave) and that we can only know through reason.
Shadows
Shadows are the sensitive region of the world, copies of physical objects. The shadows are mutable, perishable, multiple, etc., and are known by the senses. The degree of knowledge of the images or shadows, Plato calls it conjecture.
Prisoners
In the Allegory of the Cave, prisoners represent the human soul, which must strive to enter the world of ideas and thus escape the prison that represents the body or cave.
Reminiscence
Reminiscence is the theory in which knowledge is identified with memory. Knowing would recall the ideas that the human soul had seen before being taken prisoner in the body.