Theory of Forms
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Plato (428-427 B.C)

WHOWAS HE?
 Plato, born possibly in Athens, at a time when
Athenian democracy was already well developed.
 He belonged to a wealthy and aristocratic political
family.
 Founder of the Academy in Athens, which can be
regarded as theWestern world’s first university,
and its first school of philosophy.
 He died at 80 years old

Context of the time
 All questions at one time were spiritual in nature, and the
Greek religion was there to answer all these questions
 The rising and setting of the sun was Helios
 Earthquakes and the tides were controlled by Poseidon
 Ancient Science had proven these gods to be false;
 With little left to answer, Science and Philosophy began to
tackle the remaining questions

Where do we come from?
What are we doing here?
What is the meaning of life and the
universe?
Questions of the time

Plato the man
 Long line of Skeptics (including Socrates)
 Eternal and unchanging knowledge was hard to find in the
world
 Everything was always changing – even our senses/body
 In his Socratic dialogues Plato argues through Socrates
that because the material world is changeable it is also
unreliable.

Test the Senses

Are these equal?

Evil
or
Good?

What is this?

What’s wrong with this
picture?

Perception Always Changes

Draw a ball

Constructed Reality
 We perceive imperfect ‘reflections’
of the Forms
 A form is an eternal idea that exists
outside of the physical world
 Timeless and unchanging,
transcendent above all things
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Eternal
They exist
forever, independent of all
things.They do not need
to be created nor
sought, the just “are”

Transcendence
They do not exist in space and time. A
material object, a basketball, exists at a
particular place at a particular time. A
form, roundness, does not exist at any
place or time.

Pure
They are pure properties separated from all other properties.
A material object, such as a basketball, has many properties:
roundness, ballness, orangeness, elasticity, etc.

Forms are Incorruptible

The Forms
 Eternal
 Transcendent
o Do not exist in our time and space
 Changeless
 Perfect
 Pure
o They are “pure” properties
separated from all “other”
properties.4

Example of the Forms
 The Divided Line
 Simile of the Sun
 The Allegory of the Cave
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Simile of the Sun
 Unless there is light, our eyes cannot see,
even though they have the power of sight,
and objects that we can see exist and have
colour and shape.
 It is only in the presence of light, which
comes from the sun, that we can see.
 The sun also causes growth

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~ The sun causes sight.
Plato thinks of sight as a power that the eye
gets from the sun, as though eyes actually
make what they see ‘visible’ in a way
similar to how the sun makes things visible.
Plato says….

Allegory of the Cave

Bound Prisoner
 Only knows the
images as reality
 He mistakes the
reflection for the true
appearance of reality
 Believes the shadows
to be a person but its
only the reflection of
a real person
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What are the Shadows?
 Government
 Education
 Relationships
 Authority Figures
 Reality

Bound Prisoner
 When the bound prisoner is
released, he turns his head to see
his captures
 Confusion arises
 Sees the opening of the cave and
exits towards the light
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Bound Prisoner
Exits the Cave

The Form of the Good revealed
 Prisoner now sees the world above the cave
 He realizes the error in his thinking
 He now sees the accepted form of reality,
and not the reflected reality in the shadows
 The prisoner returns to this cave to tell the
others what he sees – Strange Prisoner ~>
 “Nothing so educates us as a shock”
(Durant SoP, 13)
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The Forms are the Causes
ofAll that Exists
 The shadows on the wall represent material
objects, while the real objects are the forms
outside the cave.
 The forms contribute all order and
intelligibility to objects.
 Important evolution in the thinking process
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Allegory of the Cave
 Represents a bigger part of Plato’s Republic
o man’s quest for the Good
 Man must remove misconceptions of reality
and seek what is Good
 Leads to
o Plato’s Philosopher King
o Model understanding
o Awareness of reality
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Philosopher King
 Philosophers contemplate that which they do not know
 Educate themselves to all things
 Protect the needs of the many
 Soul strives forTruth, Justice, and Meaning
 The rational part of his soul must seek “Just”

The
Allegory
of the Cave
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