Plato's Forms

The Cave Analogy

Prisoners were chained inside a cave all their lives, watching shadow cast on the walls by a fire

One Prisoner escapes his chains, and with great difficulty climbed to the entrance of the cave and to the outside world (Alternatively - The Prisoner was dragged)

Once there, everything seemed more real, he realised that all life came from the Sun

The Prisoner came to a great understanding, and therefore became the Philosopher King. 

He went back within the cave to tell the others about the world more real outside

The Prisoners said he was mad and killed him for his stories of the outside

Symbolism 

Prisoners - Humans, ignorent and fooled

Shadows - All that humanity see and believe to be real

The Cave - Earth, only 'Shadows' of the 'Outside'. It appears to be the real world, but it is an imitation and is imperfect

The ascent to the outside world - The ascent to enlightenment, a struggle 

The World outside the Cave - The World of the Forms, The true world

The Sun - The Ultimate Form, The Form of the Good

Philosopher King - Socrates, Plato's teacher (Killed for his beliefs and philosophy)

The Forms

The Forms can only be understood outside of the imitation world, within the world of the Forms, and this imperfect world is always changing and things die. Forms are unchanging and perfect, timeless and eternal.Everything in our world is merely a shadow of a Form. Eg a beautiful person is a shadow of the form of beauty

The Particulars

These are the individual characteristics of each object within the imitation world, but the Form is the essence.This is how we recoginse all dogs and being a 'dog - as it is an imitation of the dog Form. All dogs look different due to their Particulars, however we still recongise them as a dog. 

When we are born we have a dim recollection of what a Form is, because we have an immortal soul that observed the Forms before be incarnated. Our Souls have already been within the world of Forms, which is how we recongise all. We do not 'learn' anything, we simply remember it from our time within the world of Forms. Learning is a process of understanding the reality of how things are. Plato's evidence for this was that we are born with a basic understanding of Justice, Truth and Beauty without being taught. Plato believed our desires dragged us down to Earth, away form the perfection of the world of Forms. 

Plato was concerned about the Forms of things such as Justice, Truth and Beauty rather than material objects. The most important Form of them all is the Form of the Good - the Ultimate Form. Plato argues that goodness is the most important Form as it is the source of all other Forms. It enabled us to understand and assess things. Within the world of appearances we can label things as 'good', but this does not tell us what goodness is. Plato points out that sight requires both light and the eye to see clearly. Light symbolizes the Form of the Good. The implication is without knowledge of the Form of the Good one does not see clearly, the same as trying to see in the dark.

The Philosopher was someone who tries to escape the world of appearances and with their mind see the Forms that lie beneath the appearances. Plato believed that because the Philosopher has knowledge of the Forms they are the most suitable people to rule society.  

Forms could be ideas preserved in the mind

People may argue that the ideas of truth and beauty are not Forms but ideas in peoples minds that they pass onto others - such as friends and children. You could argue that ideas are not independent of the mind they are within. For example ancient Greece and Rome was lost in Europe following the collapse of the Roman Empire and had to be discovered by Islamic Cultures in the Middle Ages. Richard Dawkins has referred to ideas being passed on from person to person. He compared bad ideas spreading like a virus from one person to another, he gave to example of religion. 

Of what are there real Forms?

Are there forms of everything? What about new inventions and creations? New scientific advances? How is it possible for there to be a Form of something that does not yet exist?

Forms and the Physical World

Plato never explains the link between the World of imitations and Forms, what is the purpose of a world of shadow? What is the link between the Form of justice and justice within our world? 

The Third Man Argument

Aristotle put forward a well known criticism. Suppose that a man is a copy of the Form of a man. Aristotle was saying that a copy of a Form could be an infinite series that never stopped, rendering the theory of the Forms meaningless.,

Cave Analogy

The Forms

Criticisms